Gravity Gardeners

About the team

Gravity Gardeners is composed by two Brazilian students, Davi Souza and André Neffa, with the goal of widespread technological and sustainable agriculture. Davi is an Electrical Engineering student at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) with expertise in sensing and automation in controlled environment agriculture. André is an Agronomic Engineering student at Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture (ESALQ/USP) with interest in vertical farming and outer space food production.

Our vision

Our vision is to rethink food production by developing a sustainable and scalable vertical farming system capable of operating across challenging and resource-constrained environments, from extreme regions on Earth to extraterrestrial habitats such as space stations, the Moon, and Mars. This innovative system centers on modular vertical farming units, engineered for multicrop interaction and microclimate coordination. These modules optimize water and energy use efficiency while offering scalability features and continuous operation to meet long-term food demand. By minimizing physical size and mass, our system addresses critical global and space-related challenges: limited agricultural area, ecosystem stability, and the need for efficient logistics in deploying farming solutions. This integrated approach paves the way for controlled closed-loop food systems that enhance ecosystem resilience while innovating agriculture, offering new paths to explore sustainable food security on Earth and beyond.

Our solution

Our solution is based on deployable growth modules designed to be autonomously managed and vertically coupled with similar modules to create scalable food production facilities. Each module is equipped with standardized capabilities to meet operational constraints while providing optimal microclimates tailored for diverse plant species. The system integrates advanced features, including water management and nutrient recycling, air ventilation, dynamic climate control, and adaptable lighting systems to maximize resource efficiency and crop yields. At the core of the solution lies the Greenhouse Control Unit (GCU), which facilitates hardware control, environmental monitoring, remote communication, and data analysis, enabling streamlined operations in remote or extreme settings. Additionally, the solution incorporates a Human-Plant-System Interface for intuitive environment control and comprehensive data management, ensuring optimal performance and adaptability. Emphasis is placed on selecting crop species with high harvest index, increased nutritional content, resilience to varying conditions, and short growth cycles. This design supports efficient resource use, even in compact spaces, making it ideal for challenging environments such as urban areas, arid and desert regions, or extraterrestrial habitats. By combining modularity, technological integration, and crop-specific adaptability, this solution paves the way for sustainable, resilient, and scalable technological food production systems.