The Green Balance: Mission Patch
The image on the left displays the Green Balance's Mission Patch Design.
A mission patch is the first glimpse of my mission, the Green Balance. It's purpose is to give the audience a little hint on what my spinoff is about. I must include this mission patch to give people the idea of what problems, innovations, and aspects of the environment my spinoff is focusing on.
My mission patch involves the air, water, fish, and plants. It is called the Green Balance because I am developing a system that is perfectly sustainable for the ecosystem. The mission patch covers all criteria mentioned in the student guide. I can improve it by making it by hand rather than completely digital. This will make it more authentic and original/analog. I can also make it better by making my patch more specific and less broad so I can more in depth on what my patch is about.
Hello! My name is Samuel Kyong, and this is my mission patch. My mission patch has four components that describe key elements. They are 1) clean air 2) plants 3) fish and 4) water. These four components represent what is essential for life. The Green balance patch represents how each component works together to achieve the perfect sustainable ecosystem. The waste from fish provides nutrients for the plants. The plants absorb the fish waste as nutrients travel in the water, cleans the water, and returns it back to the fish habitat. As the plants grow, it absorbs the harmful volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere and coverts it to clean breathable air necessary for life. Humans breath the fresh air and consume both the fish and certain plants. This whole process is repeated again, creating a perfect balanced ecosystem.
Problem Statement: Aquaponics is a farming method that combines aquaculture and farming. Today, the Earth is being run down by humans over and over again, and something needs to be done. That is why I focused my NASA Spinoff on a perfectly sustainable ecosystem known as the Green Balance. My mission is based on research and development of Phd. B.C. “Bill” Wolverton, an environmental scientist.
Dr. Wolven discovered that certain plants were extremely efficient at filtering and cleaning the air. During the vietnam war, Dr. Wolven was tasked with cleaning up the toxic residue know as Agent Orange. Agent was an artificial chemical used during the Vietnam war as a lethal chemical weapon. While developing his solution to cleaning up the Agent Orange, he discovered that particular plants were naturally processing and cleaning up the toxic chemicals. He later developed natural purification systems using plants. It is this idea coupled with Aquaponics where I am developing “the Perfect Sustainable Ecosystem.”
My idea is to use everyday items to improve not only the quality of our life here on earth, but also to improve its efficiency. By developing a sustainable eco-system that uses recirculating water, raise fish, a protein we can consume, grow plants to clean the air, plants that we can eat and plants clean the waste. This Green Balance can be used in our homes here on earth, in the space station floating in space, or even on Mars.
Other NASA Spinoffs: The images below include a collage of nine NASA spinoffs that can be found in my home, neighborhood, and community. This project was completed by me, Samuel Kyong, and my (super cool) mentor, my dad, Steve Kyong.
1. Ask: What problem will the Spinoff design solve? What everyday object will be used? What criteria (requirements) must be followed in the design of the Spinoff? What constraints (limitations) may need to be followed?
My Spinoff design will solve the problem of cleaning volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are a large group of chemicals that easily evaporate in room temperature. My Spinoff design will help clean air in closed environments like homes, space stations, etc. Everyday objects that will be used include water, fish, plants, pipes, and a growth media bed. The criteria that must be needed/followed are water, fish, plants, and a growth media. Some constraints are that if more than one of the components fail, it could lead to fish loss and plant loss. Also, if it is a very cloudy and cold day, my plants and fish can die.
2. Imagine: What are some solutions? (Brainstorm ideas) What part of my ideas may be used WITH ideas from my teammates?
Some solutions to the constraints is to research and plan ahead before building my prototype so that there is a less chance of having the components to fail. I can also put my prototype in the sunniest/warmest place of my house so that the plants and fish are more likely to live. Some ideas that can be used from my coach is to put clay rocks instead of lava. I can also glue pipes together so that there will be less leakage in the prototype. I can also use a diverse number of seeds and plants so that there is more biodiversity in my ecosystem.
3. Plan: Make a plan and draw a diagram of your Spinoff idea. List materials needed to make a prototype.
The procedures I followed was to first research many various types of aquaponics.
Next, we gathered the materials. Materials that were needed are in the following: 2 three ft diameter PVC pipe, 1 four ft PVC pipe, 4 ninety degrees corner PVC pipe, two-hundred fifty gallon per hour pump, 10 ft, 1/2 inch diameter hose, hot glue gun, 15 two in net cups, 5 types of seeds (Chinese Cabbage, Hybrid Hot pepper, Kale, Hybrid Squash, Black Onions, and 2 Potatoes), Water plants, Growth Media Bed (with hydration balls), bell syphon kit, eight fish, fish habitat, silicon glue, air pump, air stone, fish conditioner, fish net, pipe glue, and fish food.
Then, we came up with the design for the project. After that, we created the system that included the fish habitat, the deep water culture, and the growth media bed. Once the system was created, we started the fish habitat. Then, we planted the seeds into the systems. Once the systems is running, we monitored the water and collected data daily.
The image on the right is an illustration of my spinoff design. This includes the materials needed to make the prototype and how everything will be constructed together.
The illustrations includes the materials I used and describes how I designed my project. This model ensures that my experiment is the as efficient and accurate as possible.
The image on the left is an illustration of the possible methods for the Green Balance to occur. This is the step-by-step process and cycle of how nutrients are distributed through out the ecosystem.
The diagram describes my process and includes how efficient my project is while justifying why it's useful and important. The drawing describes the process step-by-step and talks about what happens throughout the Green Balance spinoff.
4a. Build/Create: The prototype itself and images taken to build/create it. Following the plan and building my spinoff technology.
Please see below to see the building process of my prototype, the materials I bought, and the time frame (first day, first week, second week, and third week process of prototype).
4b. Test and Evaluate: Testing it out and recording my results. Demonstrate your models to others. Did it do what you expected? Explain why you selected the materials for your model.
In conclusion, the Deep Water Culture process of the experiment efficiently provided a perfectly sustainable ecosystem. My plans were able to grow in a healthy environment. No fish died. The plants and potato in the Deep Water Culture did great. The plants in the growth media bed were big and the plants in the deep water culture were even larger. My plants had big leaves, thick stems, and were tall. My experiment turned out just as I expected (even better!). I selected these materials because they were affordable and easy to use so that my prototype could work the best. The seeds were particularly chosen because they grew fast and well. The PVC pipes were a good material because they were sturdy and thick enough to cut through. The saw was affordable and able to nicely cut through the pipes. The bubble generator helped the fish get more oxygen in the water, too. The tank was a large, dark perfect resource for the fish.
4c. Refine Design: What other materials might be better? What changes might improve the model? Make as many improvements as possible.
I would like to test out different medias which could mean that the different medias could make the prototype even better. Such materials could be like lava rocks, coco peat, perlite, or pebbles. I would also like to use a larger growth media bed so that the plants have more room in their roots to grow. If I make my media bed larger, my plants won't be as squished. Giving more room to the roots of my plants would definitely improve my prototype a lot. Also, I would like to use plants that are more cohesive to one another than just randomly selecting plants that grow well. In other words, selecting seeds that can grow well in a similar environment as my spinoff is in would have definitely improved my prototype much more.
5. Share the Innovation: An explanation of the problem and why it needs to be solved. A description of how the Spinoff works and how it will solve the problem. A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the Spinoff model. A description of how the design has been improved from the original prototype. A description of what the team has learned through trial and error.
The descriptions and explanations asked for above in "Share the Innovation" are in the video above.
My mission is based on research and development of Phd. B.C. “Bill” Wolverton, an environmental scientist. In the late 1960’s Phd. Wolverton discovered that certain swamp plants eliminated toxic chemical known as Agent Orange. Agent Orange was used in the Vietnam War as a chemical weapon.
After his distinguished military career, Phd. Wolverton continued his research at the NASA’s Stennis Space Center to research the enviroment’s natural ability to clean itself. In 1973 NASA Scientist identified 107 volatile organic compounds (VOC) inside the Skylab space station. Certain Synthetic man made materials used in construction, such as paint, plastic, metal treatment, and insulation give off chemicals that are harmful to life. These building materials produce chemicals such as Formaldehyde, benzene, and trichlorethylene. These chemicals are known to cause burning eyes, respiratory problems, and symptoms of Sick Building Syndrome. This chemical process known as off-gassing, releases VOC’s in the air we are breathing in our homes, schools and buildings we visit. PhD. Wolverton’s research became an underlying part of the Stennis’ Environmental Assurance Program. Where, he designed and developed “ECO” sustainable living environments for the possible habitation of space.
The Green Balance is definitely a perfectly sustainable environment because it allows plants to grow with abundant nutrients produced by the fish while also absorbing these volatile organic compounds which ultimately clean the environment.