Permaculture in Space

So I was thinking the other day about space and science fiction. One series came to mind called Babylon 5. (Google Babylon 5 for more information about the show). One of the issues in the show was making oxygen. So the inside of the station was a big green area for "oxygen reclamation". This is the only show or series I have seen in which this is shown. If there is another please let me know. In the future I think the need for a plant based solution will be require to solving what machines can not do. Create oxygen and food cheaply. Therefore permaculture would be the answer.

T.,

I don’t know about any other series, but B5 was one of my favorite science fiction shows ever.  It was truly a revolutionary series in that it based itself on an arc structure, something unheard of for the time but common place today.

Great question.  I am always pleased to hear references to B5.

Eric

The book series dune is based on a sand planet with very little water. The fremen wear stillsuits that reclaim the water from their sweat, urine, and feces. A straw comes out of the suit to drink it.

They close in the caves to keep moisture from escaping.

They have wind traps that catch dew as well as physically collecting dew each morning from the few plants.

They are turning this waterless planet into a planet with water in a several hundred year timeframe.

The water is harvested from the dead. Instead of a phrase like "i am gonna kill you" they say "i will take your water".

wayne fajkus wrote:The book series dune is based on a sand planet with very little water. The fremen wear stillsuits that reclaim the water from their sweat, urine, and feces. A straw comes out of the suit to drink it.

They close in the caves to keep moisture from escaping.

They have wind traps that catch dew as well as physically collecting dew each morning from the few plants.

They are turning this waterless planet into a planet with water in a several hundred year timeframe.

The water is harvested from the dead. Instead of a phrase like "i am gonna kill you" they say "i will take your water".

Yes. I forgot about Dune. I have read the first book and I hope someday to read the series.

Not exactly permaculture, but the series The Expanse portrays ships that have plants growing in dedicated compartments in walls for the purpose of recycling oxygen.

Eric

Herbert's "Dune" is a profound and important book, well ahead of it's time in terms of ecology theory.  Essentially the entire planet is conceived of as one ecosystem, with key leverage points of intervention.  Once a particular threshold of water capture and storage takes place, the ecosystem is supposed to pass a tipping point and shift dramatically into a much moister state.  This is in 1968, mind you....well before the Gaia Hypothesis or any of the now familiar thinking around climate change and tipping points.  It is also noteworthy to mention, too, that Frank Herbert and Paul Stamets were next-door neighbors in Washington state.  Maybe some ecological ideas crossed the property line...