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MRVE Growing Chamber 1
Business Concept ReportMarket:
The ability to efficiently grow one’s own food as well as filter one’s air in space is anecessity, and this concept capitalizes on that necessity. The Growing System will be marketed toadvanced, government funded researchgroups such as NASA and to private industrialists such asRichard Branson and his company Virgin Galactic, and other personal spaceflight organizations.If NASA were to become a lead customer, that would facilitate subsequent sales to personalspaceflight organizations (PSO’s) once NASA’s imprimatur was secured. An alternative approachwould be to sell immediately and directly to PSOs. By providing them with a leading edge, state-of-the-art technology, PSO’s could in turn include the MRVE Growing Chamber among their marketing safety claims. For our team, this approach would bypass the budgetary and political process constraints that accompany dealing with a large governmental agency. It could in factresult in a more rapid market penetration. Likely, a combination of both strategies will be used.Additionally, this concept will also be marketed to the "underwater community", such as the NOAAwith Aquarius, an undersea research center.
Value:
Relatively speaking, this system is rather inexpensive compared to some of the other components required for space travel. The system is fully automated, and can be compactly packed,stored and transported to the future site of a lunar colony to be activated, and can be custom made toaccommodate specific spaces. If, for instance, it were used on a space flight, it would be smaller inorder to provide room for the astronauts as well as the other equipment. However, if this were usedon a lunar colony, it could be vastly greater in size to provide for a higher yield in food, vital gasesfor sustained living, and materials for possible lunar businesses. Any party willing to invest in thisconcept could expect to see positive gain from their initial investment. Since food, materials, and air are integral parts of anylunar colony, an investor can expect a constant demand for his or her products. Because this system uses aeroponics, one can also expect faster plant growth than atypical geoponic system. This, coupled with the pressure inside the growing chamber, will result infast production of food, air, and vital materials. In a matter of months, a lunar colony couldessentially have a flowing economy solely because of this system.The system will essentially pay for itself in less than one month after setup. Overhead costs will beminimalsince the system is prefabricated and requires nothing more than water, nutrients, andnominal amounts of electricity, and the occasional replacement of gas removing pellets. (The exactcost will be explained later in the proposal.) The water and nutrients can either be shipped alongwith the initial system, or can be found in the lunar surface (currently, scientists are debating possible methods of “creating” water on the Moon). The electricity that will be needed can easily beharnessed from solar panels on a lunar colony or any other type of power system that will beutilized on the lunar colony.When presenting this system to clients, it is vital to communicate that the long term goal is to be part of the seminal efforts of lunar colonization, and that the team is not looking to make a huge profit. Investors need to understand that the margins on these products are extremely attractive. Of course, when selling this product to investors, the price will be higher than the cost ofmaking it. Asstated earlier, the cost of producing one of these systems is extremely low. Essentially, the onlyitems that need to be made are the chemical microsensors used to monitor the gas flow and gasratios (O2 to CO2 concentrations), the MRVE material used as the outer casing of the system, and
MRVE Growing Chamber 2the pressurization unit that consists of a self-regulating pump and a valve that lets air out if the pressure is too high. Inside the chamber, there is also a computer that helps regulate the nutrientlevelspresent in the nutrient solution as well as the as within the chamber. The computer systemalso controls a special, UV light that helps eliminate the threat of algae growth or other inhibitingmicrobial agents.The MRVE component of this system maintains a relatively low cost.Magnetorheological (MR)fluids, used to make the objects rigid, minimally require iron filings, which are priced at around $1 per 100 grams and a small quantity of oil—requiring less than a gallon per Growing System, whichcosts between $5 and $10 per pint.The viscoelastic plastic, used to seal the Growing System if it is punctured, and prevent any water leaks, is not very costly either.Sleep Innovations and Tempur- pedic are currently using similar technology in their mattresses and pillows.The retail cost of aTempur-pedic pillow is around $50, and with a large share of the market, the actual manufacturingcosts are fractional.The only limitation is that the viscoelastic plastic is a petroleum-based product,and that cost significantly depends and the market, and varies greatly.The chemical microsensors also maintain a relatively low cost if they are fabricated in facilities thatcontain the necessary materials, such as one of clean rooms at the NASA Glenn Research Center, or other national or private research facilities that can do photolithography and sputtering.Otherwise,these sensors can be costly, due to the cost of the shadowmasks that are used for photolithography(around $3000 per mask), the photoresist for photolithography (hundreds of dollars per liter), the platinum used for sputtering and creating the interdigited electrodes (the current price on the NewYork Stock exchange is around $950 per ounce), the alumina or silicon carbide wafers upon whichthe sensor sits (around $200 dollars per six-inch wafer), the cost of the chemicals and wires thatenable to sensors to sense (ranging from $50 per liter to hundreds of dollars per liter), the acetoneused to remove the photoresist and extra platinum (around 55 cents per pound), the UV exposureunit for photolithography (between $35,000 to $40,000 per unit), and the sputtering machine(between $35,000 to $40,000 per unit), and of course the price for maintaining a clean room, whichis about $120 per hour.All of these prices do add up.However, if our team is able to use a cleanroom facility that is already equipped with a sputtering machine, an a UV exposure unit, then thecosts that we only need to take into account are the cost of the chemicals, the alumina and siliconcarbide wafers, the shadowmask, the platinum, and the photoresist.An emphasis is added on the unique abilities of the MRVE Growing Chamber. This system produces air, food, and vital materials for a growing lunar colony, it is completely portable, itisextremely durable and flexible, it can be custom ordered to fit any space, and it pays for itself in lessthan one month. The aeroponics unit alone costs about $100 dollars. However, additional costs must be considered. These costs include the Reverse Osmosis Filter (about $300), the UV SterilizationLight (about $100), nutrients (about $80), sensors (about $250), gas canister for initial inflation(optional) (about $75), and the computer system ($300-$800 depending on how many are needed).In total, this system could cost about $1455-$1955. As expensive as this may seem, it is importantto consider the fact that one can purchase multiple chambers without having to purchase morecomputers, filters, UV lights, or nutrients. This essentially makes it more cost-efficient to order multiple systems to effectively reduce the cost to $850 per unit. This price quote is true for 20 units.The change in cost per system depends on how many items are bought with the aeroponics unit. It isrecommended to buy another reverse osmosis filter for every 5 additional units added. One UV
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