Yuri - I've been away from GC for a while and I do so love to see your name at the top of the thread especially in science. As to your theory, I think the only solution is to use solar stored energy to augment lighting in the evening (maintain 12/12 cycle). You would need far more square footage of extremely high efficiency solar panels (and for that matter high-efficiency high efficacy LEDs) then would be practical for a given grow area. Solar panels are at best 24% efficient, and very few meet that standard. (That statistic from some reading I did on solar city). then you have to deal with the inefficiencies and heat loss in converting that captured electricity back into light. It is true that LEDs are quite good at this, but that is relative to incandescent lights. I'm told that LEDs are not yet a great solution for precision growth as is required with Herb. I'm also unaware of the efficiency ratings of these high-end LED systems. As one of my venture projects deals with this, I'd be pleased to hear what you've dug up.
IMO farming indoors is a great idea. Unlike other countries, the U.S. spreads instead of building up. This obviously isn't the most efficient idea and with a global population increase eventually the whole world would be cities and farmland. And unless people don't want nature, animals and shit, then better management of current space is needed. Which leads to the idea of indoor farming. Farming indoors would help feed the worlds growing population while also reducing the amount of space needed to farm large quantities of food. Although energy needs would be high; the future (probably even now) holds promising renewable energy techniques that should be able to sustain mass indoor farming. I envision tall parking garage like structures that would also go underground, and would contain many levels of different crops growing in them. I would also imagine that since the plants are being grown indoors, then waste would also be able to be recycled.
I've not dug up much. Just hypothesized that since plants only use a narrow em spectrum, there could be a way to convert em radiotion that plants don't use into a form it does use thus increasing how much pants per square foot you can grow Obviously not with our current panels. But I did like one posters fiberoptic idea -yuri
what interests me is how well plants might grow outside of our atmosphere. solar radiation can be quite intense, I wonder how much (if any) we have to filter to grow food in a space station
well at that point its not about filtration. In space the radiation is much more intense. If a solar panel could absorb that intense radiation it could power the entire greenhouse -yuri
You would need a lot of money for all the equipment and a structure for all the plants. It wouldn't be as efficient as using the sun and it would hike up the price of fruits and vegetables
https://youtu.be/6oYz6E1q158 Found this, thought was amazing. Special LED lights and vertical farming to the max!
I could see it happening. I remember a few months ago I read about people converting old shipping containers into aeroponic grow spaces for home gardens in cold regions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9ZxziRpmtU
you are probably right. Alas I don't believe there is any experimental data on it. I have noticed however the plants I grow aeroponically respond to high heat and sunlight much better than do my soil or hydroponic plants. I hypothesize that this is because the plant can use water much more quickly when there is air around the roots (aeroponic). The problem with a solar powered greenhouse in space is that it increases the complexity and lifting mass of any system one would attempt put into orbit. Any system in space has to control for lifting mass as a dominant variable. (As I'msure is obvious to you)
No doubt there are advantages to aeroponics. Its just a more difficult system to build and care for than aquaponics. I do like aeroponics and have tried it once. Ill probly do it again someday when I have garden room I don't know why this is even an issue. To me its a nonissue I always tthought it was obvious that if we were to become a space based civilization, Wed build and launch our ships from space, not planets. There is plenty of material that can be obtained outside of planets. And large asteroids/small moon's make much better places for factories and launch pads than planets. Even starting a space colony would require a self sufficient base on the moon which could build its own structures in space. -yuri