Closed eco-systems

--- In spacesettlers@y..., "Serkan, Anilir" wrote:
> I would like to share your idea about the following topic...
>
> Concerning, the closed ecosystem of a habitation, the information I
> found is usually based on the idea that the percentage of nitrogen
is
> decreased and oxygen is increased (up to 70%), so it will weight
three
> times less than normal air and be cost-effective...
>
> According to my knowledge, The stabilization of the basic ecosystem
will
> require redundancy in its diverse systems. For example, often
> interaction between populations of organisms rank more important
for the
> stability of an ecosystem than the activity of single organisms. On
> Earth, an enzyme (nitrogenase) is responsible for taking atmospheric
> nitrogen and changing it into high-energy ammonia (NH3). The
ammonia is
> necessary for protein production. The most important point here is
that
> oxygen must be kept away from away from nitrogenase. If we have too
much
> oxygen, there will be no production of ammonia and protein. It is
hard
> enough on Earth to keep Nitrogenase active without upping the
amount in
> the atmosphere to 80%. The nitrogen-fixing bacteria and trace
elements
> like molybdenum or crucial elements like phosphorus (creating the
> universal energy of all living organisms (ATP)) are necessary
elements
> for a sustainable closed ecosystem.
>
> so does anybody have some information or ideas about sustainable
closed
> ecosystems??
>
> anilir

We are getting ahead of ourselves here. Small stations have to be
built before a perminent habitat can be started. There will be
pleanty of time to grow various species of plants and find out what
likes what.

But I will call your attention to the failed BiosphereII experiment.
They spent enormous resources to build small examples of all the
recognized ecosystems on the planet. Including things like savanah
and a mini ocean. The thought was that a 'holistic' example of the
world enviroment was needed to properly sustain human life. Well the
crew nearly starved themselves and they had to pump oxygen in to
restore a safe atmospehre. Now they had many problems- badly
designed green houses that cut 20% of the light, concrete that was
absorbing CO2- and taking the oxygen with it, and the use of high
grade soil from Arizona farms to plant ALL the plants in ALL the
biomes-not just the farming ones- which ment that the rainforest and
savanah had TOO MUCH organic matter for their plants to grow well in
and released extra CO2 and Methane as it decomposed.

The point is, design the habitate through engineering, not through
eco-religion. Humans dont need savanahs, or rain forests to survive
in space. They need edible foods, they need clean water, and they
need oxygen. Plants and animals to accompany them for this should be
chosen to fill these needs- not the desire to create a model of
planet earth.

Also its ok for the colonies to get imports from each other and from
Earth. Earth isnt going anywhere. To be economicaly viable the
colonies have to grow the bulk of their caloric intake, but not
everything. So its not crucial that everything be grown there, what
is crucial is that what DOES grow there keeps the air balanced and
the water clean.

Also, the Moon has plenty of Oxygen and other gases to pressurize a
colony to 1 atm if they want to. But if athletic training tells us
anything, slightly higher gravity (by spinning at a even 10m/sec
instead of 9.8 whatever that is the true gravitational constant) and
slightly thinner air (say the same as Denver- or perhaps even Mexico
City) would produce a basicaly helthier person- while not being very
burdonsom on a new arrival. But one of O'Neals Island colonies, the
way they are built, they are NOT going to be fragile. The people
talking about reducing the air pressure are trying to get colonies
built "on the cheap" and assuming that EVERYTHING has to fly off
Earth. But the only way any colony is going to be built is to build
lunar surface infastructure first then build a small- like Island One-
"construction shack" and then start assembling perminant habatats.

As for the makeup of lunar soil, it is not a unknown:
http://silver.neep.wisc.edu/~neep533/LEC13/lecture13.html
gives a good breakdown. Phosphorous for ATP production is found in
lunar soil "P2O5-0.5 wt% in phosphate minerals in KREEP" to quote the
above link. Of course the same processes that will extract the oxygen
and metals from lunar soil will leave this behind in concentrated
form so the colonies don't have to depend on just what gets dumped
into their soil when assembled.

Probably planting in lunar soil would give you better results in such
closed confines than the Biosphere people got using high grade farm
soil. Its a blank slate, and the organics, minerals and microbes can
be tailored exactly to each plant species needs.