Guide (Farming)

Info

Setup

Farming plants can be done with Portable Hydroponics, Hydroponic Tray, Hydroponic Station or Automated Hydroponics. Only Automated Hydroponics comes with its own airtight compartment, all others used an open design so a controlled atmosphere (greenhouse) is required to operate these equipment without plants dying.

• Using Portable Hydroponics, Hydroponic Tray or Hydroponic Station

1. Build an airtight room with an airlock. Use simple airlock if the environment outside is vacuum, or advanced airlock if the outside world has pressure.
   • With Hydroponic Station, direct sunlight is not required so you can build the greenhouse anywhere using any material.
   • With Portable Hydroponics or Hydroponic Tray however, the greenhouse should be located with maximum sun exposure in mind, and all walls/ceilings facing the sun trajectory made of glass.
2. Build an entire set of pressure/temperature/gasMixture control for the greenhouse, either manual system or automated (via logic chips or programable IC chip). Make sure the following conditions are met, or the plant will wither through a declining health bar:
   • 7.7KPa < Pressure < 145KPa. Glass panel collapses near 150KPa
   • 15^oC < Air Temperature < 50^oC.
   • Atmosphere and pipes being mostly free of pollutants and volatiles, maximum of 3mols for volatiles.
   • 40 kPa atmosphere of minimum 1% carbon dioxide.
3. Provide grow beds with water, or the plant will wither through a declining health bar. Insert a canister of water into the slot of Portable Hydroponics. Connect Hydroponic Tray or Hydroponic Station to a pipe network containing water.
4. Provide illumination to the plants. Activate the UV light on Hydroponic Station, or wait till the sun come up. Plant won't die for lack of light exposure, merely stops growing. Low sunlight strength on Europa will produce misleading warning saying 'no sunlight', but really it is just growing at reduced rate.
5. Wait till the plant matures(cursor hints current yield), and harvest.
6. A healthy plant consumes water and carbon dioxide, then produces oxygen and radiates heat into surrounding atmosphere. Constant manual intervention or another feedback loop into the environment control will be necessary to keep the greenhouse running in the long term.

• Using Automated Hydroponics
  • check its own article for detail.

Efficiency of raw food and meals

The following table compares the sustainability of everything eatable in meals:
(1 meal satisfies 100% of hunger. In this way, 1 muffin for example satisfies 200% of hunger, which sufficient for 2 full meals.)

• per unit (e.g. 1 cereal bar, 1 tomato or 1ml of milk.)
• per stack (e.g. 20 mushrooms or 5 raw corn grains.)
• per plant / grow cycle (e.g. some soybeans or pumpkins, which grow to several (more than 1) on their plants.)

Ordered List of plantables and cookables

Name	Efficiency															Ingredients	grows / prepare in
	(short range)							(medium range)				(long range)
	Portion	of	Unit	do	Hunger	⇒	Meals	by	Stacks	⇒	Meals	by	Yield	⇒	Meals
Fern			1						100				2				Hydroponics
Flower			1						100				2				Hydroponics
Milk	100%	→	1ml	→	100%	→	1,0	→	100	→	100,0	→	1	→	100,0	100ml Soy Oil, 50g Fenoxitone Powder	Chemistry Station
Soy Oil	100%	→	1ml	→	20%	→	0,2	→	100	→	20,0	→	1	→	20,0	1 Soybean	Reagent Processor
Soybean	100%	→	1	→	10%	→	0,1	→	100	→	10,0	→	2	→	20,0		Hydroponics
Wheat	100%	→	1	→	10%	→	0,1	→	100	→	10,0	→	2	→	20,0		Hydroponics
Tomato	100%	→	1	→	30%	→	0,3	→	20	→	6,0	→	3	→	18,0		Hydroponics
Pumpkin Pie	17%	→	1	→	100%	→	5,9	→	1	→	5,9	→	1	→	5,9	100g Flour, 1 Egg, 10ml Milk, 1 Pumpkin	Microwave
Mushroom	100%	→	1	→	20%	→	0,2	→	20	→	4,0	→	2	→	8,0		Hydroponics
Potato	100%	→	1	→	20%	→	0,2	→	20	→	4,0	→	3	→	12,0		Hydroponics
Muffin	50%	→	1	→	100%	→	2,0	→	1	→	2,0	→	1	→	2,0	50g Flour, 1 Egg, 10ml Milk	Microwave
Fries	63%	→	1	→	100%	→	1,6	→	1	→	1,6	→	1	→	1,6	0.5ml Soy Oil, 1 Potato	Microwave
Pumpkin	100%	→	1	→	100%	→	1,0	→	1	→	1,0	→	2	→	2,0		Hydroponics
Rice	100%	→	1	→	2%	→	0,0	→	50	→	1,0	→	2	→	2,0		Hydroponics
Baked potato	100%	→	1	→	80%	→	0,8	→	1	→	0,8	→	1	→	0,8	1 Potato	Microwave
Tomato Soup	100%	→	1	→	70%	→	0,7	→	1	→	0,7	→	1	→	0,7	1 Tomato	Microwave
Cereal Bar	100%	→	1	→	60%	→	0,6	→	1	→	0,6	→	1	→	0,6	50g Flour	Microwave
Corn	100%	→	1	→	2%	→	0,0	→	5	→	0,1	→	2	→	0,2		Hydroponics

Food storage

Food decays at a rate determined by the environment it is stored in. The main factors are gas composition of surrounding atmosphere, temperature of the surrounding atmosphere, and whether or not the item is in a fridge. Decay rate multipliers for a given gas are listed below:

Gas	Decay Rate Multiplier
Nitrogen (N2)	0.6
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)	0.8
Vacuum	1
Volatiles (H2)	1
Oxygen (O2)	1.5
Nitrous Oxide (N2O)	1.5
Water (H2O)	2
Pollutants (X)	3

The decay rate also contains a factor determined by temperature, unless the surrounding environment is a vacuum. Temperature decay factor is a complicted calculation summarised in the graph below (/u/LordRavenX, 04/2021):

Storage of food within a powered fridge also multiplies by a factor of 0.3, reducing decay by 70%.

To minimise decay, food should be kept in a powered fridge in nitrogen atmosphere at 110K (-163°C).