I would love to, thank you so much for the offer Jason! This Proposal has really gotten me thinking over the last few days and I've been noting and researching just because I can, I haven't read through the Guidelines for helping with a proposal yet but I will shortly.
For now, here's what I understand of the environments & what I would suggest to overcome them, feel free to poke holes, add more knowledge or if you feel that something doesn't match your plan/ design I'll be happy to adjust ideas. I'm not a University graduate nor do I have high grades from school, but I have a vast knowledge of plants due to previous professions and I try my best to use data from credible sources such as Universities, Nasa & Eesa.
Running on L.E.Ds alone would require greater cell capacity, so to reduce weight I feel it may be best to use both Sunlight and L.E.Ds. (more research is needed on my part to confirm this theory)
Growing crops using a classic growth system such as the one previously mentioned on the ISS is the easiest & most effective way to grow crops on a small scale, as long as there is sufficient Lighting, Temperature ranges, nutrients & water we will be able to grow just about anything, however, plant "life support" on earth or even the ISS is an entirely different concept to what would be a Lunar/ Martian Efficient system.
Amount of light exposure: The amount of time the Lunar surface has full sun exposure depends on the location, I believe it is fair to assume that the near side on the moon receives the least amount of light due to it being blocked by the earth to varying degrees throughout a typical month, the far side of the moon would, therefore, be the best location for the maximum amount of Light hours, allowing us to charge large capacity cells via solar panels for powering L.E.Ds when the moon goes dark for 13.5 days.
While having the highest number of light hours may be the best thing for a photovoltaic system, all plants need time in the dark to repair and grow, because of this, we would need a screen to block all light for the set number of hours for each specific crop.
strength of light on the Lunar surface: this would be range between Approximately 1416W/m2 & 1324W/m2 (Watts per Square meter) (https://www.e3s-conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/pdf/2018/24/e3sconf_solina2018_00053.pdf Nasa) in the Earth's upper atmosphere the average of this measurement is 1368W/m2, once past the atmosphere this is reduced to approximately 1,000 W/m2 for a surface perpendicular to the Sun's rays at sea level on a clear day (University of Tennessee) This amount of Sunlight on the Lunar surface may be too much for most crops and could cause bleaching of the leaves or even damage to photosynthesis cells, as such we will need an artificial atmosphere such as an optical lens to reduce this figure to a safer 1000W/m2, block most UVA, UVB and completely block the extremely harmful UVC wavelength.
Light Spectrums: From my existing knowledge I can advise that most green plants like light from the Blue end of the spectrum (450nm) when sprouting, once leaves appear it is essential that Blue & Red (650nm) light be present for photosynthesis to take place & once fruiting starts They prefer a Red further along the spectrum at 730nm, at least this is the case for annual tomatoes. Simple optical lenses could be used to suit the required wavelength.
Radiation Levels: As I'm sure you will already be aware, radiation is another serious issue that needs to addressed, although we can stop most of it with the use of Aluminium Shielding and other types of radiation shielding, I feel that any optical lens that is capable of filtering light down to an Earth-like spectrum may not stop radiation. (research is needed to confirm types of radiation shielding and the highest recorded levels of radiation we need to protect against).
Air quality: Needless to say we will need a pressure vessel capable of holding up in a vacuum & a system supplying regulated amounts of CO2 and extracting O2 at the correct levels (although this process could be a separate system as we will have humans in situ to help produce CO2)
Nutrients: We would want individual nutrient systems for supporting unique stages of a plants growth, as I mentioned before plants have a vegetation stage, a flowering stage, a fruiting stage (where applicable) & each plant can differ drastically, some using small amounts of vegetation all the way through growth and others even needing a 4th nutrient, each of these stages would need at least 1 redundancy.
Substrate/ hydroponics: A constantly running water pump & water supply would also be vital for a hydroponic setup, again with at least 1 redundancy each. to reduce the amount of water we take on board Regolith could be used as a hydroponic substrate, however, I have read that similar research has been carried out and can have negative effects on some plants, a simple re-balance of nutrients for plants that are un-effected by toxins in Regolith would most likely be all that's needed.
Lunar Temps: -233 to 123c or -387f to 253f (Nasa) these temperature ranges are too great for any Earth-based plants without a heating & cooling system, this system would need a larger cell capacity for heating elements of any kind and would need to be as efficient as possible, Cooling in an environment that has no atmosphere is far more complex than cooling here on earth as there is no air to draw heat away from radiators. (Research for a new type of cooling system would need to take place)
It would also be a challenge to maintain a signal back to earth from the far side of the moon, although Chang'e 4 made this look easy, they were in fact, bouncing the signal through another satellite.
A better Planetary body for plant growth could well be Mars due to its more agreable temperatures.
Martian Temps: -91c to 2.8c or -132f to 37f
the strength of light on the Martian surface: 95W/m2 to 590W/m2 (Nasa) equivalent to a cloudy day here on Earth.
We know that one "Martian Sol" or Mars day is approximately 24hrs 40minutes, so, If the natural light levels are acceptable for the growth of food crops, we should have enough light hours to control the amount of time the crops are subjected to light, however, spectrums may become a problem due to the Red dust in the atmosphere.
Amount of light exposure: Mars also offers the opportunity to have the system run only on L.E.Ds without larger storage cells being necessary, due to its “day” cycle being so similar to Earth, however, light is not as strong on the Martian surface compared to say the Moon or the Earth, Solar powered systems efficiency drops by 50% & during sandstorms they become inoperable.
This issue can be over come with a device called an Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), the RTG's used by Nasa contain plutonium-238 dioxide as a heat source & solid-state thermoelectric couples convert the heat to electricity, The Multi-mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) is designed to produce 125 W electrical power at the start of mission, falling to about 100 W after 14 years. (research is needed to confirm the devices ability to run a large number of L.E.D’s)
As you can see we would still need to perform further research but I feel that there is enough evidence here alone to validate moving forward to more in-depth research.
Again please excuse my spelling.
