Thrivability Solutions Network​
Solving Global Pollution, Poverty and their Consequences

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European Space Agency's Spacehouse concept

Challenge

Now, take moment and imagine if we combined the best features of the  European Space Agency's Spacehouse pictured right, with the Dymaxion House, with the SPACE house concept. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first thrival civilization. The need and demand for the solutions offered by the SPACE house will grow exponentially as the world becomes increasingly overpopulated. Everyone, from individuals to mega corporations, to national governments and everyone in between, are invited to design, build and distribute your very own SPACE Houses, making them as affordable as possible. Adopt this project, today!

Send your questions, comments and success stories to: thrivabilitysolutions@gmail.com
Please help to make this concept a reality by spreading the word about these ideas and this website!

Welcome! ​The purpose of this network is to find proven technologies and techniques which individually solve one or more global problems, but on the small scale of a family of four. These technologies are then combined into a symbiotic, all-in-one solution, that is scalable and mass-producible. This will reduce solution's cost to make it as accessible to as many families as possible, globally.

Adopt-A-Project: The SPACE House: The All-In-One Solution to Global Overpopulation, Pandemics, Pollution, Poverty, their associated Conflicts and all 17 Global Goals

Voted Idea of the Year 2017 - IdeaExplore.net

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Introduction

Poverty, pollution, pandemics, and other global problems are increasingly made worse by growing overpopulation. Any solutions found now, or in the near future, for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which do not complement solutions for relieving this overpopulation pressure, will only be temporary. The only humane, ecological and responsible way to enable limitless and thriving population and economic growth (minus the global repercussions), now and into the distant future, is responsible space colonization. The only way to achieve responsible, attractive and safe space colonization is to master Controlled (or Closed) Ecological Life Support Systems. We cannot afford to drag along the above-mentioned, preventable problems, to add to the challenges of living in space. Eliminating our worst problems, first on Earth, with a safe, easy, scalable closed ecosystem makes the most sense. The smallest basic unit of society is the family. What if we could design a house that can reliably self-produce all necessities for a family to thrive, including clean energy? We can design a house that prevents poverty, pandemics and pollution from ever taking root, for the family that lives in it. What if we could make this house the shining example of a closed ecosystem vacation resort? This family-sized paradise will enable a family to thrive wherever house is located: water-front, mid-desert, the South Pole, underwater, the interior of a spinning wheel space colony (aka a Stanford Torus), the surface of other planets with Earth-normal gravity, etc. Why wait until the far, distant future to create this house, now that we finally have the knowledge, technology and abilities to do build it? The SPACE House is an ideal backbone for a circular economy:

Abstract

The modular (Scalable and Portable) Automated Closed Ecosystem (SPACE) House: 

What if we combined an energy efficient, passive solar house with an energy efficient, passive solar greenhouse, like this, with other existing tools and techniques, like the BioIntensive growing method, multi-use plants and Flash Graphene, to form a symbiotic, closed ecosystem? This small scale makes it safer, cheaper and less complicated to develop than a domed city or a space colony. The house integrates municipal housing infrastructure systems like; clean power production, pollution control, food production, water works and sewage treatment; making the external and costly versions unnecessary and obsolete. This ecosystem will only rely on natural or artificial, external sources of Earth-normal light and gravity to function indefinitely. The self-reliance it provides also facilitates thorough self-isolation needed during pandemics. Imagine replacing costly Band-Aid solutions like welfare cheques and Guaranteed Basic Income with automatically, self-produced Guaranteed Basic Necessities. Once mastered and mass-produced globally, this easy access to healthy basic necessities significantly reduces the worst forms of scarcity-based: Stress, illness, poverty, pollution, crimes, wars, etc.  The humongous amounts of time, energy and resources formerly allocated to fighting these preventable problems could then be refocused on the remaining issues, especially overpopulation.

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Statement of Problem

The fundamental problem that needs to be resolved is overpopulation and its consequences, like pollution, global warming, pandemics, conflicts over dwindling resources (natural and otherwise), poverty, etc. which pose a significant threat to our children. “Fewer than 800 million people populated the Earth in the mid-18th Century. Today, barely 250 years later, we are more than 7.5 billion and will continue growing until 2050, the moment at which forecasts point to a stabilizing of the world population.”
- https://www.activesustainability.com/sustainable-development/causes-consequences-overpopulation/

The end to the population growth will not mean the end of the above-stated problems:
“The world’s ecological deficit is referred to as global ecological overshoot. Since the 1970s, humanity has been in ecological overshoot, with annual demand on resources exceeding what Earth can regenerate each year. Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.7 Earths to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year. We use more ecological resources and services than nature can regenerate through overfishing, overharvesting forests, and emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than forests can sequester.”
- https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ecological-footprint/

"According to the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental think tank, the Earth has 1.9 hectares of land per person for growing food and textiles for clothing, supplying wood and absorbing waste. The average American uses about 9.7 hectares. These data alone suggest the Earth can support at most one-fifth of the present population, 1.5 billion people, at an American standard of living."
- https://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-people-earth-can-hold-before-runs-out-resources-2018-7

Humanity faces three courses of action to reduce our global population:
Quick and inhumane – a large portion of the population suddenly dies, through world wars, pandemics, famine, terrorism, etc. = This is clearly unacceptable.
Slow and painful – globally reduce our birth rate to levels well below the death rate and reduce our consumption to only basic necessities and subsistence levels = Mere existence is undesirable.

Solution

Intermediate and informed – focus on making space colonization safe, easy and desirable, thus reducing global population pressures via humane and voluntary mass emigration = responsible and ecofriendly mass expansion throughout our solar system and beyond.

The SPACE Housing Standard proposal is currently a mix of proven technologies and techniques which only need to be combined in a new way:​

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Automated Ecosystem of Necessities (AEON) Greenhouse

Engineers and other relevant specialists need to combine the inexpensive Flash Graphene production process (which also generates significant amounts of hydrogen) using most of our landfill trash (compost, paper, plastics, rubbers, etc.);

with plant-based graphene aerogel to create transparent, durable, lightweight, conductive, portable and well-insulated greenhouses and planters for all climates and weather. The lightweight of an aerographene aeroponics greenhouse could replace the roofs of conventional houses without reinforcements needed;
with plasma arc gasification waste treatment plants, calibrated for flash graphene and clean hydrogen mass-production;
with a portable shelter, like the Dymaxion House;
with a passive solar greenhouse, like the Ceres Greenhouse Solutions High Yield Passive Solar Kit;
with shipping container farms. The greenhouse plants benefit from house's thermal mass for stable temperatures and the family's daily pollution production for their food and water; thus ideal year-round growing conditions.

Automation

Automation is needed as self-production of all necessities is too time-consuming and labor-intensive for a family to handle. Engineers and other relevant specialists need to combine farmer robots that can do all of the planting, watering, weeding, harvesting, cleaning with robots that can prepare organic, whole foods, plant-based meals and medicines using proven recipes. The FarmBot web app allows you to "Graphically design your farm by dragging and dropping plants into the map. The game-like interface is learned in just a few minutes so you’ll have the whole growing season planned in no time." It includes useful details about each plant, provided by OpenFarm. Other bots can perform all house cleaning and minor repair duties. The level of automation for each system can be adjusted or completely disabled. The bots and systems can also be switched to teacher mode, so they can teach humans any basic skills to manually self-produce any necessity, step-by-step.

Food Production

Intensive gardening methods like BioIntensive, hydroponics, aeroponics, etc. are used to grow nutrient-dense plants, so as to abundantly feed a family, with nutritionally complete meals, in the smallest space possible.

Nutritional yeast can be grown to produce abundant vitamin B12 and other hard-to-find nutrients in plant-based foods.

Clean Meat systems could be included and tailored to keep all of the nutrition and flavor, but none of the carcinogens and other bad elements; thus eliminating slaughterhouses and their moral and ethical baggage.

Water Recycling

Engineers and other relevant specialists need to combine natural wastewater treatment solutions, including algae, different types of algae to help clean water and to produce more hydrogen and clean air;

with Hydraloop with the US Water Recyler on the International Space station;  with graphene water filters should provide us with very safe and clean water.

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Production of Remaining Necessities

Engineers and other relevant specialists need to adapt/develop 3D graphene printers to print a variety of graphene types and also to combine flash graphene with different plants to form composites, to produce all other essentials, like clothing, furniture, cutlery, tools, water filters, solar panels, wind turbines, construction materials (safe for all environments, including underwater and even outer space), electric conductors and insulators, electronic parts, etc.

Clean Energy Production

Compost Reactor
Engineers and other relevant specialists need to combine the Home Biogas System (including the Biotoilet);
with a Compost to Hydrogen System for clean energy production;
with a Compost Heat Recovery System (CHRS), like AgriLabTech's, for heat production;

with a Compost to Graphene System for very strong and versatile construction material.

Composting naturally produces humus, fertilizer and other plant foods.

Auxiliary Clean Energy Production

Flexible and transparent graphene solar cells can transform the entire building's surfaces (including the planters) into a clean energy generator, coupled with wind turbines to generate extra clean energy for storage:

Clean Energy Storage

Organic Microbial Batteries can take advantage of the billions of microbes involved in composting and store extra electricity generated by the wind and solar power generation systems. The composting process can be tweaked to produce ammonia and methanol, to be used as Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) to load and unload hydrogen:  to transport it safely and easily.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells can also store extra hydrogen produced.

Automation of Mass Production

Engineers and other relevant specialists need to adapt/develop 3D construction printers;

to use with inexpensive graphene mass-production from almost any carbon source, like Flash Graphene;

to print all, or most, of the components above, quickly and inexpensively.

Circular Economy

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The SPACE Solution is an excellent foundation upon which to build a robust circular economy. How? Most packaging waste for all products is made up of paper and plastic. Most paper is already compostable. Plastic composting bags and other compostable plastics are coming out on the market. Compostable plastic alternatives, like notpla.com and avanieco.com, could also be considered. If companies could be persuaded (perhaps with new laws) to make all packaging waste, for everything we buy, use only 100% compostable materials which degrade completely in the modernized Jean Pain composting system, then this system could:

• eliminate pollution
• generate virtually limitless humus and fertilizer to regrow our forests and
• generate virtually limitless eco-friendly energy for additional things like; car(s), boat(s), etc. for a family
• generate virtually limitless essential products via flash graphene.

Adaptability

AEON Greenhouses can be stand-alone or attached to the roofs and/or sun-side walls of conventional homes.  If there is a shortage of any one element, like energy for example, then another greenhouse module is simply added to achieve a general state of equilibrium. Developing hot-swapable, plug & play food and energy production modules, would add more precision to this state of equilibrium (and the ability to quickly adapt to unforeseen circumstances). An external tree module can be replaced with a wind turbine module and vice versa. A solar panel module can be replaced with a garden planter module and vice versa. Both electrical and  irrigation lines can be strategically placed in, on and around the greenhouse to guarantee an ample supply of plants and/or energy, regardless of the season.

How does the SPACE House compare to other Closed Ecosystem solutions?

European Space Agency’s Melissa
https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Melissa/Closed_Loop_Concept

Melissa uses a Closed Loop Concept:
“The driving element of MELiSSA is the recovering of food, water and oxygen from organic waste carbon dioxide and minerals, using light as source of energy to promote biological photosynthesis. It is an assembly of processes (mechanical grinding, bioreactors, filtration, wet oxidation, etc.) aiming at a total conversion of the organic wastes and CO2 to oxygen, water and food.
It is based on the principle of an "aquatic" lake ecosystem where waste products are processed using the metabolism of plants and algae which in return provide food, air revitalization and water purification.”

The SPACE House includes a robust Closed Loop that can accept outside inputs. In addition to food, water and oxygen, the SPACE House recovers clean energy, clean heat, biofuel (which can be cleanly converted into hydrogen), clothing, medicine and completely recycles human waste. It also renders expensive and ecologically destructive electricity grid and water works infrastructures useless and thus recyclable.

University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2
http://biosphere2.org/research/our-mission

Biosphere 2 uses the domed city approach:
“The University of Arizona Biosphere 2 consists of a unique large-scale experimental apparatus housing seven model ecosystems, a team of multidisciplinary scientists, a broad science education and public outreach program, and a modern conference center. The seven model ecosystems are: 1) a mature rain forest with over 90 tropical tree species, 2) a 2600 m3 ocean, 3) forested swamps dominated by mangrove trees, 4) a tropical savanna grassland, 5) a 1400 m2 coastal fog desert, 6) three desert hillslope grass-shrubland landscapes, and 7) Biosphere 2, its campus, and associated buildings and facilities serve as a 162,000 m2 model city and urban ecosystem. The Biosphere 2 Science Program addresses societal grand challenges related to water, environmental and energy management through design of large-scale experimentation in each of these model ecosystems. These experiments support the development of computer models that simulate the biological, physical and chemical processes to predict ecosystem response to environmental change. In return, these coupled-systems model simulations inform scientists about the next level of experimentation needed to advance understanding of these complex systems’ responses that can be tested against observations in natural systems.”

It is far easier and less expensive to design and build a dome for a city filled with SPACE Houses instead of conventional houses. SPACE Houses are already designed to be self-sufficient in completely eco-friendly ways. The only way they disturb the surrounding ecosystem is by their mere presence. Thus, they should be strategically placed to minimize ecological harm, while maximizing exposure to sun and wind. The SPACE House could benefit from the many lessons learned from Biosphere 2, like incorporating the lung to regulate seasonal variations in atmospheric pressure and heat levels, not using concrete (at least not the type that absorbs oxygen), etc.

University of Guelph’s Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF)
http://www.ces.uoguelph.ca/index.shtml

The CESRF explores plant growth in a large variety of highly controlled and precise growing environments and conditions:
“The Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility and its Space and Advanced Life Support Agriculture program are an essential part of Canada's contributions to plant research and development for space and closed environment related activities. The prospect of a higher priority for advanced life support research objectives in the Canadian Space Agency's Long Term Space Plan and the strong support of NASA's Advanced Life Support (ALS) community provide a clear incentive and opportunity to promote our capabilities in this area. In addition, our ongoing contract with the European Space Agency's MELiSSA Project promises to expand to include a broader scope of objectives in life support studies.”

The CESRF would be invaluable to help configure and calibrate the EON Greenhouse for any and all varieties of growing environments and conditions.

NASA’s Advanced Life Support
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/technology-onepagers/advanced-life-support.html

Ames Research Center’s ALS develops high tech replacements for nature’s processes:
“Role of Ames in Advanced Life Support
NASA Ames is providing ALS research and development of innovative technologies for use on the International Space Station, crewed transit vehicles, and surface habitats. The primary research and technology development emphasis is on air regeneration, water recovery, solid waste processing, and system integration, modeling and analysis tools.
Recent ALS Technologies Developed at ARC
Water Recovery – Vapor Phase Catalytic Ammonia Removal (VPCAR)
VPCAR is a single-step water recovery system that requires no consumables or maintenance for three years. The Equivalent Systems Mass metric of VPCAR (the combination of total system mass, power, volume, etc.) is five times better than the current state-of-the-art ISS (International Space Station) water recovery system. At TRL 5-6, VPCAR is a key candidate life support subsystem technology baselined for missions beyond low Earth orbit.”

The complementary technologies of the ALS and the AEON Greenhouse could easily be integrated into the SPACE House to back each other up as redundant Life Support systems. 

Mission: Desired Future History
 

The purpose of the Thrivability Solutions Network is to create and perfect a single, scalable solution which fulfills all seventeen of the United Nations’ Global Goals for Sustainable Development for one family, the basic unit of any society. Then we can fully automate its mass production so that every family can have it for as Free as possible, globally:
 

1. No Poverty: Guaranteed Basic Necessities empower family members to reliably thrive; individually and collectively.
2. Zero Hunger: A primarily plant-based diet has been proven to be the best fuel for the human body's health and well-being.
3. Good Health and Well-Being: In addition to the plant-based diet, the included, free membership to the INSTEAD Academy (described below) facilitates personalized, strengths-based: exercises + sports + career paths.
4. Quality Education: SPACE House families get free membership to the Individual Natural Strengths & Talents Exploration, Application and Development - the INSTEAD Academy helps individuals to find their passions, leading to purposeful and fulfilling lives.
5. Gender Equality: Equal access to thrival necessities provided to both genders.
6. Clean Water & Sanitation: Algae + ISS water recycler + aerographene filter for water. Plant-based antibacterial soaps and detergents for sanitization.
7. Affordable & Clean Energy: Abundant heat and clean hydrogen extracted from the family’s daily compost production. Photovoltaic aerographene can supply any additional clean energy needs.
8. Decent Work & Economic Growth: Since all necessities are reliably self-produced by the houses, the economy becomes luxuries-only; thus, a middle-class lifestyle for poorest. Rapidly reuseable rockets are being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin. They will make the cost of getting people, products and services into space very affordable and very popular, very soon. A shift to a space colonization economy guarantees economic growth forever. Also Conquering our worst problems will make us more attractive to be contacted by other space-faring civilizations, thus opening up further trade, commerce, etc. Finally, the newly discovered Trappist-1 star has 7 watery, Earth-sized worlds which may harbour life. This suggests that life-friendly worlds may be far more plentiful than we previously thought. CE-equipped interstellar ships will be needed to get to them.
9. Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure: Since the Global Goals will be solved, we can focus on remaining global problems, while opening ourselves to the challenges and opportunities of space colonization and exploration.
10. Reduced Inequalities: The only product and service inequalities that will remain will be for luxuries.
11. Sustainable Cities & Communities: The Houses’ integrated municipal infrastructures and zero pollution make city upgrading and construction easier, cheaper and eco-friendly.
12. Responsible Consumption & Production: Adopting the SPACE Housing Standard globally and universally for all structures.
13. Climate Action: Each house eliminates most forms of the worst pollution, including the transportation sector. A rapid-deployment, emergency-shelter version of the SPACE House can de designed to indefinitely sustain a family of four following a disaster. This is needed for the growing number of natural disasters due to climate change.
14. Life Below Water: Switching humanity to a primarily plant-based diet and the SPACE Housing Standard is welcome news for life below water.
15. Life on Land: Mass emigration to space colonies means that massive tracts of former city and farmland can be reforested.
16. Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions: Guaranteed Necessities will significantly reduce scarcity-based acts of desperation, crime, war, etc.
17. Partnership for the Goals: Let’s join together to make the SPACE Housing Standard a reality!

We could transform the catastrophe of the COVID-19 pandemic, into an opportunity for enthusiastic global peace and prosperity by transitioning our economies towards space colonization and its many benefits. Keeping the status quo, where preventable global poverty, pollution and their consequences are allowed to exist, only holds humanity back, hurts us. Creating a thrival civilization, will not only teach us how to heal our ecosystem and our civilization's worst problems, but will also provide us with the insights, tools and techniques needed for mastering the construction of CEs and Terraforming: Technologies that are necessary to open up the vast riches of space to humanity. If we can master how to thrive in harmony with the closed ecosystems of SPACE Houses, then thriving in harmony with Earth's much larger and natural closed ecosystem will become very easy. The end goal is to develop portable, all-inclusive, and self-sufficient human habitats of all shapes and sizes where humans can responsibly thrive, here on Earth or, that we can pack up and bring with us to use off-planet.

Vision 
 

This climate crisis is showing us that temporary, short-term solutions are no longer enough. All environmental solutions are rendered temporary as long as our growing overpopulation problem is not addressed. Environmental solutions that worked when the global population was only 7 billion will no longer be sufficient when that number has risen to 10 billion or beyond. We need permanent, forever solutions. The only humane solution to overpopulation, where we do not painfully limit ourselves, is for humanity to spread throughout our solar system, in a responsible manner. This will necessitate designing anti-pollution, closed ecosystems where we can happily live, work and play our entire lives, in abundance. Closed ecosystems, like those that will be needed for domed cities on Mars and other planets, or space colonies which orbit those planets, will be designed to recycle 100% of the waste produced inside them. We need to start adapting the lifecycles for all of our current products, policies and practices to meet closed ecosystem standards, right now, for a bright future. The self-production of necessities, made possible by the SPACE Housing Standard, is a logical step in that direction. The early mastery of building small, mobile, closed ecosystems will greatly simplify the design construction of future space colonies:

​Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, plans to colonize Mars. Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, plans to colonize space with O’Neill Cylinders. Perhaps both could collaborate to combine their dreams in stages of a plan: Build the O’Neill Cylinders first, to save Humanity and Earth, in the short term. Gravity control research would then be emphasized to make the colonization of Mars and the Moon safe.

The modular (Scalable and Portable) Automated Closed Ecosystem (SPACE) Colony:
Convert the pressurized fuselage (body) of airliner-sized aircraft into modules of a Stanford Torus by adding layers of radiation-proof graphene and graphene composites. Adapt existing reusable space rockets, like Blue Origin’s New Glenn and SpaceX’ s Starship, to transport and release these modules into orbit and return for more. The modules are then assembled in space into several Stanford Tori which will be used as Earth-normal work camps for colony construction. The reusable space rockets can then deliver extremely strong and light-weight graphene panels, made from garbage, to build large Stanford Tori modules. These modules are self-sufficient, interchangeable and several habitable stories thick. The Tori are designed to interconnect to become a huge O’Neill Cylinder space colony, capable of supporting over a million people, comfortably. Thousands of these cylinders, known as a Dyson Swarm, alleviate the overpopulation pressure on Earth and generate endless, fulfilling careers for everyone. The houses are a backup life support system for the Stanford Torus modules, which are a back for the Stanford Tori, which are a backup for the O'Neill Cylinders. There is never enough redundancy for life support, when you live in hostile environments, like space.

Humans, like the rest of the natural world, don't want to merely survive or be sustained, we need to grow, to flourish, to thrive! We can build a civilization designed to ensure that our planet and our species will thrive together well into a future free of overpopulation pollution and poverty.

"Fundamentally thrivability is visionary - it is about co-evolving a future we want rather than avoiding a future that terrifies us. It is about acting with enthusiasm toward an opportunity rather than away from catastrophe. It is about becoming a good ancestor."
http://www.appropedia.org/Thrivability

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