~6 months
A new generation, fast
A hen hatched in the habitat can be laying her own eggs about half a year later. Breeding success shows up in months, not decades.
A benchmark, on purpose
A tech demo, and we say so
C.L.O.C.H. is not the most efficient way to feed anyone, and it isn't meant to be. It sets a benchmark that is incredibly hard for humanity to reach, and possible: Earth life carried to orbit, living there, and raising its own next generation. If a flock can do it, the path is open for much more.
Why chickens
The fastest honest test of whether Earth life can last off Earth
2 foods
Meat and eggs
Every bird that lives there is also a food source. The experiment feeds people while it runs.
1 proof
The barrier falls
If a flock can live, breed and feed itself off Earth, the biological barrier to long-term settlement starts to come down.
Anatomy
One rigid egg that spins as a whole
No rotating seals. The shell, the ring and everything inside turn together. Spin pushes everything outward, so the inside face of the ring becomes the ground.
- 1
Docking ports at the poles
Both sit on the spin axis, so a visiting vehicle can dock to a point that barely moves.
- 2
Geodesic shell
Each facet can reflect, filter, absorb or pass light, so the skin works as power plant, grow light and thermostat at once.
- 3
Upper dome
Compute and the dock for a drone that monitors the flock and collects eggs.
- 4
Ring pasture
The inside of the equatorial ring is the ground. A tractor on rails moves the flock to fresh forage every day, across four sections.
- 5
Spin gravity
Rotation pushes birds, plants and water against the ring. The target is somewhere between 0.3 g and full Earth gravity.
- 6
Lower dome
Water recycling and waste processing, where manure and scraps start their way back to feed.
Closed loop
Waste becomes feed, and the flock eats again
Black soldier flies
Larvae break down wet, rich waste such as manure and food scraps, and turn it into protein and fat birds eat eagerly.
Mealworm beetles
A second chamber handles dry, fibrous plant material the flies can't. Both chambers feed one shared chute.
Forage and water
Clover and grains grow on the ring pasture. Water is cleaned and reused, the way the International Space Station recovers most of its own.
Built on Earth first
Getting life there
Launch eggs, not birds
Adult birds handle launch stress poorly. Fertilized eggs are small, light and sealed. Starting incubation on the ground for about a week before launch gives the embryo time to develop the structure it needs before reaching low gravity.
Early flock: 8 hens and 2 roosters. On Earth, a breeding core of 20 hens and 4 roosters runs ahead of every flight.
Watch it live
From launch day, the cameras stream here
Cameras inside the habitat will stream to this site, so anyone can follow the flock. These are the moments we're building toward.
Launch
Fertilized eggs, pre-incubated on Earth, leave the ground.
First hatch
Chicks hatch in orbit, on a spinning pasture.
First egg laid
A hen raised in space lays her first egg.
Robot retrieval
The habitat's drone collects the egg with no human on board.
A dozen come home
Eggs return to Earth. Likely the most expensive eggs ever produced, and the proof.
Follow the build
Be first to hear when the campaign opens
Updates as the pasture robots get built and C.L.O.C.H. moves from render to prototype. Crowdfunding is planned, and subscribers hear first.