ecosphere

[shadowfierce]

I'm entering this space challenge which is set up by my science department. The prize is a trip to kennedy space centre and yes if i win, i'll be going to america and hallelujah, i will be able to meet the astronauts and visit the admin area and watch rockets launch. it will be a brilliant oppurtunity for me which i can't miss.

 

ok here's my challenge:

- design an ecosphere to allow human life on another planet in the solar system. You cannot choose earth.

- your entry should demonstrate internet based research and should be firmly based in ICT.

- you need to consider the requirement for life and how you should use science to support human needs.

 

 

ok as a starter, i have no idea what ecosphere is and it's kinda confusing to me. im thinking of doing a powerpoint presentation for this research but CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS CHALLENGE? *puppy eyes*

 

can somebody explain to me about ecosphere? because i'm pretty confused here

[foodchain]

I'm entering this space challenge which is set up by my science department. The prize is a trip to kennedy space centre and yes if i win, i'll be going to america and hallelujah, i will be able to meet the astronauts and visit the admin area and watch rockets launch. it will be a brilliant oppurtunity for me which i can't miss.

 

ok here's my challenge:

- design an ecosphere to allow human life on another planet in the solar system. You cannot choose earth.

- your entry should demonstrate internet based research and should be firmly based in ICT.

- you need to consider the requirement for life and how you should use science to support human needs.

 

 

ok as a starter, i have no idea what ecosphere is and it's kinda confusing to me. im thinking of doing a powerpoint presentation for this research but CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME WITH THIS CHALLENGE? *puppy eyes*

 

can somebody explain to me about ecosphere? because i'm pretty confused here

 

Well that’s quite a challenge really firstly.

 

I don’t know what to say, I don’t think any one person here can develop a self sustaining ecosystem in say a building for instance on an alien planet, do you more or less mean a concept with some specifics?

 

For instance, people need molecular oxygen(sounds cooler then O2). I don’t know how you would approach this, you could use some sci-fi genetics in conjunction with plants, which could satisfy as a food source or something also, heck maybe the imaginary plant could also terraform soil and an atmosphere, or perhaps a device that basically frees such from materials on the host planet. You would need an adequate temperature, which I guess you could try a portfolio approach, such as small scale nuclear power, coupled with solar if possible. All of which are just possible examples, unless you are to primarily research such out on the net and use nothing but real world examples of such, in that case its pretty much up to you I would think. I would try wiki at first, or type in artificial ecosystems or something like that on the net, biodomes and so on.

[grifter]

foodchain had some good points there, I 'm inclined not to help you, just out of spite as I'm rather jealous, but what the hell, for the good of the forum:

Now; you need to get a clear definition of "ecosphere," in a biological sense an "ecosphere" is simply a global ecosystem, but in astrophysics it is a "shell" that surrounds a star which has the correct parameters to sustain life, yet creating the latter would be ...impossible or at least without "creating a star"

 

I Will presume you are referring to the former (you may consider posting in the biology section for some more info on a BIOSPHERE)

 

things to consider:

1./ source of energy, almost certainly "reusable-energy" (whatever that means these days) this will eliminate any co_x

2./ natural resources, I would strongly recommend terraforming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming)

3./ don't forget the basics i.e. size of planet, orbital parameters, after all you don't want to spend billions terraforming only to realize your stuck on a Pluto-like planet, e.g. you will want your planet to be in (as discussed earlier) the habitable zone, which for any given star can be found with this equation:

 

[math]d_{AU}\,\,\,\ \sqrt{L_{star}/L_{sun}}[/math]

 

 

Where:

 

[math]d_{AU}[/math] is the radius of the habitable zone

[math]L_{star}[/math] is the luminosity of the star (biometric luminosity)

[math]L_{sun}[/math] is the luminosity of the sun (bolometric luminosity)

 

once you have considered a HZ (habitable zone) in the solar system you need to think about the solar systems location in its galaxy, you need to be close enough to the centerer for heavy elements to exist, you also have to be far enough away from the center, to avoid being devoured by your local neighborhood super massive, or be ionized to the extent that humans grow a third eye, anyway, just something to think about, good luck

[Sayonara]

I don't think the assessors will be looking for a complete solution to every ecosphere problem.

 

What they will want to see evidence of is that the entrants understand the problems that an ecosphere would face, and that they have researched different approaches for dealing with those problems.

[A Fool]

I think a good Aproach would be to demonstrate your prowess at understanding the needs life has in an ecosphere then give a thourough example, like if you chose mars you could determine if you could generate heat by deep holes in the surface and pumping water down it like the reverse effect of a radiator then power the pumps by sand protected wind turbines or solar panel with deepcharge batteries. the possibilities are endless

[shadowfierce]

grifter, i don't understand anything that you said !!! :confused: T__T i never knew that the teacher set up a very hard challenge and for a 15 year old as well <__< but i'm doing my best here. ok, first of all, i need to find a suitable planet. it can't be too col (like pluto but then pluto is not a planet) and no high gravity, i dont want to be squashed so is mars ok since it's just next to earth and it;s not that far from earth as well. so like in mars, we could attempt to recreate our environment inside protective domes and become part of a giant closed ecosystem.

[shadowfierce]

i'm doing a research on ecosphere but i guess biosphere and ecosphere is more or less the same thing. to start of, what's a biosphere?

[ecoli]

the living elements on earth... or rather, the sum of all the ecosystems on earth and their interactions.

[shadowfierce]

ok i've been asked to design an ecosphere- do you have any idea how i should do it?

[insane_alien]

think pond.

[foodchain]

i'm doing a research on ecosphere but i guess biosphere and ecosphere is more or less the same thing. to start of, what's a biosphere?

 

If you want a good run through of all that stuff and have some fun at that same time I would suggest finding and playing a game called sim earth.

[Realitycheck]

If you want to win, you should recreate the Miller experiment, with allowances for scenery, heat containment, energy storage, a warming mechanism for those cold nights, and you can cheat by adding some foleage, maybe even a gecko and some insects, as well. Of course, this might take a fairly large aquarium to keep the gecko fed indefinitely.

[shadowfierce]

wait, i'm doing doing the real thing. i'm just doing some research and a 3d model of it to show what it looks like. i'm thinking of doing like 'eden project', have you heard of it? the domes are shaped like bee-hives and there's controlled temperature there and artificial rainforest and dessert

[shadowfierce]

Isn't this basically the same as your other thread?

 

i know but i've been told by a member that i should ask in the biology section since some of the stuff i'll be doing is also about biology.

 

@foodchain: sim earth?i heard of the sims, are they the same thing? o.o

[Sayonara]

i know but i've been told by a member that i should ask in the biology section since some of the stuff i'll be doing is also about biology.

I have moved your original thread into the ecology forum, and merged the "biosphere" thread into it.

[foodchain]

i know but i've been told by a member that i should ask in the biology section since some of the stuff i'll be doing is also about biology.

 

@foodchain: sim earth?i heard of the sims, are they the same thing? o.o

 

Its made by the same guy, I like it more then other sims, even sim city. Its a neat game, basically you have to guide or really you control the planet, geosphere, atmosphere, etc... also the biosphere. It uses real data and terms of course and you need to create suitable environments as understood at the time for the evolution of life and eventually cultures of people and so on. There are side missions you can play which deal with hostile environments, such as mars for example. I don’t think it will give you your project, but I do think it will help you understand the various pieces of it. Plus it is a fun game. Its a bump at first though when you start in the Cambrian, the world of water basically and a whole lot of menus and commands, plus you can practice global warming, and ps, in the end make your cultures hippy liberals and they wont nuke each other to death.

[shadowfierce]

thanks for all of your support and suggestions guys.

 

you might be happy to know that ive won the science challenge and therefore im going to US this october.

 

once again thanks for all of your support ^^