If humans are going to explore and eventually colonize other worlds, we’ll need a place to live, work, and recover—a home away from home. The two most immediate needs for any long-term expedition are a general-purpose shelter and workspace, and a form of life support (in other words, a way to procure food, water, and air).
To that end, we’re partnering with the OpenLuna Foundation to develop their Mk 1 Outpost and Aquaponics Module for deployment on the lunar surface.
One of the foremost problems of space exploration is resupply. Before we can engage in long-duration exploration and colonization of space, we need to resolve the issues of oxygen supply, CO2 scrubbing, water treatment, waste handling, and food production. On planetary surfaces, all of these issues can be resolved by employing a single solution: aquaponics, which is a combination of hydroponics and fish farming. Of course, the same aquaponics machinery can also be used on Earth to solve these same problems— in remote environments, in your backyard, and even in your apartment or kitchen!
We’ll also be building the Outposts for use on Earth as quick-deploy shelters for emergency situations and remote environments. We’ll be constructing Aquaponics Modules for use in areas where food and clean water are needed and cannot be provided by more conventional methods, such as developing areas or disaster sites.