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Homebrew Biology Lab

Shikashi

By Shikashi
in Science & Spaceflight

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Shikashi

Shikashi

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Heya guys! It's me!
Well, so you may or may not know I am keen on stuff like exobiology, biology and aerospace technology. Due to starting my first Chili season next year, I thought why not conduct some biology experiments to simulate planets and or space environments.

The Plan is as follows:
First, I will get a medium sized fishtank to be my lab module, I will equip it with a simple pressure based aeroponics system assembled from those plastic egg boxes.
I already have some Lamps to simulate light conditions for different environments.
For my first experiment, which focuses on artificial light to gather some basic practical understanding, I will cover everything with black cardboard and solely use my Red and Blue LED Grow Lamp, similar to what they use on the ISS. I will use simple sterilized dirt for ease of experimenting.
My second experiment is an advancement on the first, which will involve semi-artificial dirt, made from oven sterilized dirt and sand, and finely ground rust powder. This shall simulate the conditions on mars. Sadly, I can't simulate artificial atmosphere made from augmented marsian atmosphere, because I cannot get my hands on a cheap high pressure gas depressurizer to make a mostly CO2 based atmosphere. However, I can actually simulate Titan conditions, because Methane Bottles with low pressure are easy to acquire in Austria. I won't do animal tests tho.
If you want any simpler experiments done, send me name, length, and procedure on what to do(please as detailed as possible, missing key information results in reject), and I will rate on if I will do it or not, for whatever reason(which I may or may not give)
Also, I can't do long term experiments that take years.
If you want to speed up research, help me buy better equipment, or simply up the priority of your experiment, donate me any amount of money( but not ridiculously small amounts like a single penny):

Donators will be displayed in a special hall of fame list, along with the amount of money(in euros) they donated.

Thank you for reading my wall of text.

EDIT: Later on I will also buy me a light microscope that operates down into the size of cells to analyze them

Edited by Shikashi
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kunok

kunok

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11 minutes ago, Shikashi said:

UPDATE:  I will probably get a small 30x30 cm aquarium tomorrow!

If you want homogeneous conditions like temperature and other things, then maybe is better to get a spherical o cylindrical one than in a square one, because the revolution symmetry

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Shikashi

Shikashi

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What do you mean with dangerous? You mean could start burning? Yeah, I am cautious :wink:

Uhh, it is kinda hard to get anything else than squares and rectangles here, spherical actually is pretty bad to handle because I can't easily cover it and it has a small standing surface

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cubinator

cubinator

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To what extent will you simulate pressure? Titan's is 1.5 times that of Earth, and Mars's is so tenuous water boils. You could probably make your own CO2 for simulating Mars by burning something with lots of carbon instead of trying to filter out the minuscule proportions in the natural atmosphere.

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cubinator

cubinator

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On 10/23/2016 at 4:40 AM, Shikashi said:

I do guess that in Future colonization, The air will be somewhat refined and brought to earthern pressure

Yes, that makes sense. Who would have even the most remote hope of growing a plant in .006 bar anyway? :D 

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Shikashi

Shikashi

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13 hours ago, cubinator said:

Yes, that makes sense. Who would have even the most remote hope of growing a plant in .006 bar anyway? :D 

Haha yeah, that would be rather amazing, I would use GMO plants that resemble like a gelatinous blob that contains its own atmosphere if it were to live on mars :P

ALSO: i just got the aquarium, pictures will follow shortly

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Shikashi

Shikashi

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I got the dirt and first test subjects, two neat packs of spinach seeds. Cardboard is about to come in, sadly only that brown packaging cardboard that you get with shipments, but it does the job!

 

UPDATE: I assembled the whole thing, i am just waiting for my grandparents to finish up in the kitchen so i can go and fill in the dirt.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Hast5250

Hast5250

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This. is. AWESOME!

I have an idea! Make a low pressure environment, and then try to grow plants in it. this test would be a good analogue to mars, or terraformed mars. in my country (canada) you can get CO2 really easily.  

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Shikashi

Shikashi

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Guys, sorry for the long inactivity.
I got quite some news: I grew some small Chilis on the side of the Lab because the LED panel doesn't cover the aquarium perfectly, so I got some light on the outside.
The Spinach is nearly ready to be harvested, I'll post some pictures soon.

Things are going great: I'll get a new, really huge room in early to late february 2017, with really LOTS AND LOTS of space for all sorts of projects!

EDIT: The plants are nearly 10 centimeters high

Edited by Shikashi
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  • 2 weeks later...
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