Avengers of earth| Warming Planet, Cool Ideas

Team Updates

In this picture, we can appreciate the technological devices designed for the SIGNAL G.K. project.
In this picture, we can appreciate the technological devices designed for the SIGNAL G.K. project.
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Nicolas paganini

https://drive.google.com/drive/recent


Warming Planet, Cool Ideas

“If we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it!”

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we express our attempt to give a solution to one of the 25 challenges NASA has exposed for the NASA Space App Challenge 2019. Our team has chosen a challenge called “Warming Planet, Cool Ideas”. Our aim is to examine existing space and Earth projects and systems in order to adapt them into specific technologies that help stabilize or improve the Earth’s weather, and/or eliminate processes that cause global warming.

The Avengers of Earth, as we named our team, have decided, after doing some research on the global warming and technological devices already used by NASA, to go further in the development of a drone, which is followed by a “mobile laboratory”. The function of the drone is to scan and capture the characteristics of the land it is flying over. Once the drone has detected a suitable area, the vehicle transporting the laboratory will follow the drone to that area to analyse the land. It will, then, determine if it is possible to plant and grow a green area in there.

This solution will contribute to reforesting many suitable and unoccupied areas of the Earth, seeking to revert the global warming effects.

The inspiration behind this project comes from the moon, since it fulfills the requirements of solving a space problem related to sample collection on the satellite. While working on this idea, we found it could also be suitable for our home. We believe that it could help increase agricultural production in our Province, Mendoza.

OBJECTIVES

  • To promote reforestation and social consciousness regarding global warming
  • To identify degraded or polluted soil and make and attempt to revert its pollution
  • To prevent soil pollution through sample analysis and data collection

INTRODUCTION

“If we can’t protect the Earth, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it”.



Inspiration may come in different forms, and our favourite superheroes are not an exception. All the members of our team have discovered an inner avenger which is emerging for a purpose: helping our planet. Tony Stark words in combination with the NASA slogan: “For the Benefit of All”, gave The Avenger of Earth the motivation to try and give a solution to the global warming problem.

We chose to work with the challenge “Warming Planet, Cool Ideas” since we consider it a wonderful starting point to offer solutions in Mendoza and in the world, and for researchers who are about to travel to the moon.

Our team has though both of a vehicle which contains a laboratory and a drone. Both devices work synchronized over a surface. The drone is meant to scan and localise suitable areas for vegetation growing. Through a wireless system, our drone sends signs to the vehicle which will follow it and reach the area scanned by the drone. Once there, the drone will park on top of battery charger on the vehicle while the mobile lab analyses the sample extracted. The vehicle contains pH, moisture and mineral testers that will provide the necessary information for the robot to decide if that section of the land is suitable for planting vegetation or not.

The main objective of this project is to reforest suitable and unoccupied areas of Earth. The more green spaces there are, the more improvement related to global warming we may have. Due to the air depuration capacity that plants provide, we consider it one of the best and most natural ways to revert global warming. In fact, we think that this project may motivate people to start creating green spaces in their nearby areas. Besides, the technology that we intend to use, has an enormous potential in the application scope. We really hope that our solution may help improve the regional commerce in Mendoza since soil studies will open new planting possibilities.Furthermore, the use of this technology can be taken to the future moon expedition, planned by NASA for 2024. The use of a similar drone and vehicle will help astronauts detect valuable samples that may serve for investigation purposes.

CHALLENGE

Project SIGNAL G.K: “Warming Planet, Cool Ideas”

The challenge chosen is related to global warming and its consequences. As time goes by, the weather in our planet changes drastically, and the human careless use of nature is having terrifying consequences that are threatening our lives on Earth. Even when NASA and other institutions are looking forward to finding another place to live, they highly remark the need of taking care of our planet. There is no use in finding another planet to live in if we cannot protect the one – and only one for the time being – we have got.

NASA has made a lot of research on global warming, and there have been startling results shown.

The following graph illustrates the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures and its growth towards 2016.


Another research has shown the increase of gaseous carbons in the atmosphere, which pollute the air and contributes to global warming.This graph, based on the comparison of atmospheric samples contained in ice cores and more recent direct measurements, provides evidence that atmospheric CO2 – the most commonly mentioned polluting gas- has increased since the Industrial Revolution.


As we have already mentioned, human beings have mistreated Earth in many ways. In this paper, we will only focus on soil damage. Humanity has not doubted at the moment of using fertilizers and chemicals while getting advantage of rich areas of soil. However, this behaviour is having a high price to pay: our lands are getting polluted and degraded. The severe contamination has diminished vegetation and the possibility of growing green areas. Besides, one of the consequences of having less and less vegetation is global warming due to the increase of gaseous carbon in the atmosphere. The following picture shows the world map and its soil degradation.


As we can observe, the soil pollution is a cycle. The increase of gaseous carbon decreases vegetation, and this fact increments gaseous carbon in the air. We may make an analogy between this pollution cycle and the old saying “What comes first: the egg or the chicken?”. However, what is important now is to lead these thoughts into actions and start now with the process of decontamination. In the following section, we are going to expand on the details of our project and of how it may be helpful for our beloved planet.

SOLUTION

The challenge depicted in the previous section has led us to a deep research regarding pollution and technologies currently used by different institutions. As it was mentioned, our starting point in the NASA Space App Challenge 2019 was sample collection in the moon. After some brainstorming, we generated a few ideas which made us realize that the solution we had for the moon challenge was applicable for the challenge we ended up choosing and worth trying. All the thinking we made to solve a problem outside our planet was the answer for a serious one that is threatening our existence on Earth: global warming.

Our project consists of creating both a drone and vehicle (which is a mobile laboratory) which function will be to scan and analyse soil. Through different techniques that will be developed in the following paragraph, our drone will scan the area assigned. From this superficial scanning, we will know the kind and state of soil and vegetation -if any- we have. Wirelessly, the drone will send a signal to our vehicle for it to reach the determined area. Once in there, and according to the information received, the vehicle will analyse the soil components and properties. If the area is polluted, the robot will save the information of the substances it found. This information will be used by the qualified society members in order to find a solution and revert the process of contamination. However, if the area is not polluted and the soil is accurate for planting, a metal pliers will emerge from the base of the vehicle, drill the soil and plant a seed.

In this paragraph, we aim to go deeper in the specification of our project. The process begins in the base (control and operation centre) where the vehicle and the drone will get out from. It is important that both devices come out together since the drone will send signals to the vehicle after scanning the assigned area. The drone will contain a GPS system that will allow it to fly over a specific land area. The scanning of the area will be done through a technique called spectroscopy, which consists in the use of a spectrophotometer.This instrument uses light and reflection. Inside a closed structure, the light will touch the sample substance and reflect it in a mirror. That reflected wave will be digitally analysed, and the result will be seen in a discrete frequency spectre. This mathematical analysis is used to obtain spectre firm of each analysed soil component. Comparing this spectre firms, you can obtain information about the vegetation state and number of components the soil contains in a specific area. Besides, we can also detect if there is a specific mineral missing in the piece of analysed soil.



All the information gathered by the drone is sent to the mobile lab, which goes to the assigned area to verify samples. This device is also in charge of a quantitative analysis: pH, temperature and conductivity using a 3 in 1 device. A moisture analysis is also done through a moisture tester, together with a mineral and nutrient analysis. Depending on the analysis result, the vehicle will proceed in two different ways. If the soil is damaged or polluted, the vehicle collects the information and activates an alarm system so that a further investigation is done. On the contrary, if the soil is in accurate conditions, the vehicle will drill the soil and drop seeds in order to reforest the area.

The vehicle counts with a set of solar panels that will provide energy both for the vehicle functions and the drone. While the mobile lab is analysing soil samples, the drone will stay on top of its roof to charge batteries before the next area scanning.

This project also aims to solve regional issues regarding agricultural problems our Province may have. Nowadays, the excessive use of fertilizers and chemicals are damaging the soil. Besides, different kind of plagues usually weaken our plantations affecting the Mendoza’s economy. Unfortunately, due to the dollar value instability, we do not have economic details of how much this problematic is affecting Mendoza. However, we believe the application of this project will bring benefits in the area.

With the use of these devices, we will be able to cover long distances in different countries and start reforesting unoccupied areas. As part of this project, we also expect to generate curiosity and commitment of the academic sector of society, allowing contest and hackathons that challenge new minds to keep on innovating this kind of technologies. Besides, we also want to leave a clear message to people. We want the whole world to unite and start fighting against contamination. People do not need to be experts on the matter, we just need small and daily actions that will change our minds and revert little by little the environmental danger we are immerse in.

BENEFITS

This section of our paper attempts to specify the benefits this project will have. We will cover the general benefits of the project, its benefits regarding agricultural application and its benefits if it is applied on the moon.

General Benefits of SIGNAL G.K:

-The implementation of robotic and automated systems to perform work and measurements, facilitating the collection and processing of data, increasing the precision in reducing a margin of error and developing better responses to a problem.

-Be able to collect data from areas that are difficult to access or completely inaccessible for humans.

-Combine data from air level such as terrestrial, pedological and biological.

-Develop more accurate statistical data.

-Decrease working hours for a required operator.

-Tour degraded areas globally, taking data and preparing reports of soil degradation. In suitable areas, being able to grow shoots or seeds of predetermined species of plants suitable for those soils, reforesting environments and contributing to the decrease of atmospheric carbon.

-Recover degraded land.

Benefits in agricultural application:

- Obtain accurate information about soil temperature, pH, conductivity, concentrations of nitrogen fixed to the soil, and humidity to maximize and improve crop yield and growth.

-Obtain mineralogical compositions of the soil in order to obtain percentages of concentration of nutrients and minerals, providing necessary information to buy fair and necessary fertilizers, reducing the environmental impact of their use and reducing the expenses invested in them.

- Obtain aerial images on coloration levels at the plant level, warning of possible nutritional or pathological problems in a percentage of the crop, acting in the act to solve it and reduce the possibility of crop loss.

- Obtain temperature variation data in microclimate hotspots generated under the coats or the vegetation cover.

- Obtain data on the disturbance of land, being able to improve the location of cultivation of different species of plants and improvement of the irrigation system, analysing water courses or irrigation canals, reducing the need for investments in it.

-Prevent by means of permanent studies, possible alterations or plagues in the vegetation that lead to a monetary loss.

- Improve the use and distribution of water resources.

-Improve crop yield, increase production, develop more supply, meet worldwide demand, and reduce the environmental impact.

Benefits in moon application:

- Minimizes the exposure of human operators outside the base.

- Greater precision and decrease of the margin of error when obtaining data and samples.

- Obtaining better roads to take samples, land, find variations in the terrain, etc., through the images taken by the drone.

- Draw grids of better pedological and mineralogical study areas.

- Increase sample collection hours.

- Access to more difficult areas.

- Use renewed and updated physical-chemical methods for rock and soil analysis.

CONCLUSION

Many people think that we should not be thinking of what there is beyond our planet when we have so much to think and do inside it. However, as W. Clement Stone said: “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.”, and that is exactly what we want to do. We started in the moon and discovered a great way to help our own planet. So, we hope people will dare to look beyond their eyes and start aiming for bigger things. When we gain perspective, we can discover things we never knew where there. Avengers of Earth were aiming for the moon and ended up thinking in a way of helping our beloved planet. We want to ask everybody to join us in this marvellous trip from their everyday activities: small actions can make a huge difference.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CONTACT

  • Alcalde, Kevin Alejandro: kevinalejandroalcalde@gmail.com
  • Arias, Iván: ivanarias003@gmail.com
  • Chinigioli, Soledad: soledadchinigioli@gmail.com
  • Della Perriera, Luciana: agusylu27@gmail.com
  • Gonzáles, Abel: abel_10_gonzales@hotmail.com
  • Griffone, Gisela: giselgriffone@gmail.com
  • Paganini, Nicolás: nicopaganini_94@hotmail.com
  • Yudewitz Pohl, Gabriel: gabrielyudewitz@gmail.com
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Nicolas paganini