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LiftPort Blog

Unexpected Field Trip

14/7/2015

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Today was a little unusual. Unexpectedly, I didn’t spend a lot of time in the office. Instead, I got to go on a field trip! I was lucky enough to spend about 4 hours with the team developing this: Impact BioEnergy’s Horse (http://impactbioenergy.com/horse-ad25/ ). 

It’s a pretty amazing machine. You feed it household food waste, grass clippings and leaves, and it turns that into useful products: electricity, gas, and nutrients for farming. It’s not quite as cool as Mr Fusion from “Back to the Future 2”, but is pretty dang cool! 

I hope it’s obvious why I’m interested in this stuff… closed-loop ecosystems are vital for space. Ya, I know that is decades away for an application like this. But still, it’s a step closer. Everyone knows that astronauts drink their own recycled urine. (It’s at least as pure as the water that comes out of a typical urban water utility, and your own kitchen sink – and in some cases, its maybe a lot better!) 

But if we’re really going to space, to stay, as a species… if we’re really going to Mars, or to develop free-floating space stations (like our proposed PicoGravity Lab at the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point), or if we’re going to establish permanent settlements on the Moon – then we need to figure out how to feed ourselves. We need to figure out how to recycle every step in the food processing cycle. We need to optimize plant growth, harvest, and re-use of those materials. Impact BioEnergy is just one piece of a grand and complicated puzzle. I was proud that they solicited my advice and opinions. I hope I was helpful. I’ll go back in a few weeks to check in on some other developments. Hopefully, I’ll have more to report. 

Take care, mjl
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  • Home
  • About
    • Press
  • EVENTS
    • Dec 7-9 - Blue Marble Week
    • Oct 15-16 – Space Education and Strategic Applications Conference
    • Sept 19 – Adam Crigler IRL Video Show: Space Elevators, Energy, & Space Force
    • Sept 23 – Adam Crigler IRL Video Show: Space Commercialization, China, & Space Force
    • Sep 26 - Better Futures: The Future of Space
    • Sept 26 – Adam Crigler IRL Video Show: “The Future of Space” Afterparty
  • Projects
    • The Earth Elevator
    • Lunar Elevator
    • LiftPort Museum >
      • Art and Images
    • Tethered Towers
  • Store
  • YouTube
    • LiftPort Videos >
      • A Busy Moon! - ESA Chart Explained
    • Space Policy >
      • Better Futures Event
      • To the Moon to stay
      • Extending Humans to Mars
      • Commercialization of LEO
      • Ambitious Strategy - Part 3
      • Ambitious Strategy - Part 2
      • Ambitious Strategy - Part 1
      • A New Vision - Part 4
      • A New Vision - Part 3
      • A New Vision - Part 2
      • A New Vision - Part 1
      • Background & Easter Eggs - Part 3
      • Introduction - National Space Council Policy
      • A New Era: The New White House Space Policy
  • Technical Advisory Council
  • Blog
  • Get Involved
    • FAQ
    • Contact
    • Newsletter
    • Book Club