Autonomous Lunar Greenhouse for Resource Recycling and Long-Term Human Habitation

This paper explores the design and development of a sustainable greenhouse system for long-term human habitation at the lunar south pole. With recent advances in space exploration and NASA programs such as Artemis, establishing sustainable human habitats on the Moon has become a practical and achievable goal. In this context, bioregenerative life support systems (BLSS), capable of recycling human waste into water, oxygen, methane, and fertilizer, have become critically important. Existing studies in microgravity environments have shown that plant growth is possible; however, the lunar environment - with ۰.۱۶g gravity, irregular light cycles, and unique radiation and pressure conditions - poses distinct challenges. This study proposes an innovative framework for a lunar greenhouse, including multi-layer cultivation units with semi-gravity motors, an autonomous robot with two independent arms for agricultural operations, full recycling of human waste, a methane-based energy production system, and temperature and lighting management aligned with actual lunar south pole data. The greenhouse features a transparent titanium-carbon shell, multi-layer cultivation columns, environmental control systems, water and nutrient recycling from human urine and feces, and the use of beneficial bacteria to enhance plant growth. The autonomous robot performs planting, irrigation, fertilization, harvesting, and plant health monitoring without human intervention. Water recycling involves distillation, reverse osmosis, and nanofiltration, while solid residues are used as fertilizer. Enriched artificial soil and symbiotic bacteria, such as Rhizobia and Bacillus, support nitrogen fixation and improve plant productivity. The results indicate that integrating BLSS, autonomous robotics, and radiation-resistant greenhouse design provides a practical pathway for sustainable food production and life support in first-generation lunar habitats. This framework can serve as a foundation for further research and the development of automated, sustainable agricultural systems in extreme space environments.

کلیدواژه ها:

Autonomous Greenhouse ، Agricultural Robotics ، Bioregenerative Life Support System ، Resource Recycling