HowlerPod

A highly resource efficient operations base that will support life on the planet and promote sustainability.

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Inspiration

We were inspired by many sci-fi movies, such as The Martian and Interstellar. Our team had previous knowledge and interest in space exploration and living, which helped us brainstorm ideas.

What it does

Our base allows for humans to live sustainably on Howler. It provides a solution for renewable power generation, the alkaline soils, and extreme weather conditions, and strives to use every last resource to its fullest.

How we built it

First, we sketched out ideas for each of the different components of the base. We discussed everything from how we would generate electricity, grow crops, reduce waste, and prepare for inclement weather.

We did research on soil treatment, renewable energy sources and architecture. A lot of our ideas were built off of previous experience and knowledge from things like school science projects (e.g. SciTech Young Scientist).

Finally, we put our ideas into action. We thought it would be a good idea to build the model of the base in Minecraft, which is a great tool for visualization and bringing our ideas to life. We also worked on an Arduino prototype of the soil maintenance system to provide functionality to our solution.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into many challenged with the Arduino model. For example, the syringe with the water was too powerfull and shot the water too far. To fix this, we had to find a way to adjust the speed of the motor to slowly pour the water in.

Since we used Minecraft for our model, it was hard recreate certain objects from real life, due to the limited block textures and the blockiness of the models. We also ran into some technical trouble, like getting a server up for all of us to collaborate on.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The Minecraft model turned out great and increased the immersion of our design. The arduino prototype was also successful. We were able to make use of many different components to increase the functionality of our design.

What we learned

From the research the we did, we learnt more about sustainable living and what's necessary to support human life. We also learnt more about Arduino, searching up tutorials for interfacing different sensors and automating tasks.

What's next for HowlerPod

After Wolfhacks, we plan on continuing to work on the Minecraft world, expanding human civilization on Howler. We also plan to improve some of our designs, such as quality of living, finding more ways to be sustainable, and making better use of space.

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