RedThumb: A Mars Greenhouse Design for the 2002 MarsPort Engineering Design Student Competition

The MarsPort competition, sponsored by the Florida and Texas Space Grant Consortiums, was established to elicit student involvement in the manned exploration of Mars. The RedThumb team, comprised of students from the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Department at the University of Colorado, designed a greenhouse to be deployed on the Martian surface and meet the requirements put out by the 2002 MarsPort competition. This paper addresses the difficulties of engineering systems to operate in the Martian environment including radiation, micrometeorites, and dust storms. Diet requirements and the selection of crops are also discussed. The final greenhouse system includes seven, unmanned inflatable greenhouse modules called AGPods. There is also a manned facility called PlantHAB where AGPods are maintained and harvested and includes and additional 30 m² for salad type crops.