Growing mushroom houses on the moon? NASA’s fungus-filled plan space

Going to space – let alone staying there – is expensive and dangerous. It takes about $1 million to transport half a kilogram (1 pound) of material to the Moon, and even more to Mars. Along the way, a human astronaut must survive radiation, extreme pressure and temperature changes as well as random micrometeorites buzzing through the void like bullets.

According to a program gaining momentum at NASA, the solution involves growing mushroom structures on the moon, and then beyond.

“You can’t take boards or bricks,” says Chris Maurer, the company’s founder. Red housea Cleveland-based architectural firm, has partnered with NASA to solve the mystery of extraterrestrial construction. “So what are you going to build with? And it’s really expensive to take habitats that are already built.”

The concept most researchers are looking at is called ISRU — in situ resource utilization — “which means you build with what you have there, and what you have there will be water, perhaps, and regolith (lunar dust),” he says. “.

As it turns out, these meager resources are more than enough to feed some fungal species, which can then be shaped into a surprisingly strong building material that is stronger than concrete and comes with a host of additional benefits.

Fungi magic

The endeavor to benefit from these fungi – called… Mycotecture off planet structures in destination project – It recently received a Phase 3 contract with NASA, which means it will have the funding needed to continue. In other words, the mushrooms are going to explode.

While the implications of this mushroom technology are now literally astronomical, creating the material itself is surprisingly straightforward. The use of fungal materials for constructive purposes has been a growing trend in recent years, and has been used in everything from art to construction to “bio-recycling” waste.

Maurer has already applied it to challenges here on Earth. In Namibia, for example, Red House runs a program that uses fungal materials to build housing for climate refugees while simultaneously growing edible mushrooms to address issues of food scarcity.

When astrobiologist and project leader Lynn Rothschild at NASA became aware of these and other innate efforts, she realized their potential applications for space exploration. Since then, the innate technology has gained the support of such prominent NASA figures as geologist Jim Head, who once trained astronauts for the Apollo lunar exploration program, and Apollo 15 commander David Scott, one of only 12 people to have walked on the moon.

On Earth, Maurer’s team makes fungal “bricks” by feeding different fungal species with organic matter from plants or construction waste. The resulting material is then heated and compressed into blocks that are more flexible than concrete and significantly better for the environment.

But this process is turned a bit upside down when it comes to space.

“Force doesn’t really matter on the Moon or Mars, because gravity is much lower, and the building forces will be outward because you’re in a pressurized vessel,” Maurer explains. “Instead of gravitational pressure on your building, you have air pushing out, so you need not a good material to resist pressure, but a tensile strength that can withstand that pressure.” In other words, in space, buildings don’t fall, they fall.

The plan is to start with an inflatable mold in which the fungal material will be grown using a mixture of fungal spores and terrestrial algae, which will feed from water and regolith already on the moon.

“This way, you can use less living organisms and nutrients, and then you can add a lot of water when you get there from the subsurface ice,” Maurer says. This ends up being about 90 percent of the mass of the finished building, so you’ve got most of your materials at your destination without having to launch heavy materials from the ground.

“That’s been a huge benefit from the beginning. This will save us trillions of dollars, so we love that,” NASA said.

Astronomical benefits

As research began, more fundamental benefits were soon discovered. As it turns out, the fungal material is also incredibly good for insulating from the cold as well as protecting against micrometeorites and deadly radiation.

“Radiation is the constraint on any manned mission,” Maurer says. “That’s why we haven’t been back there since the 1970s – because sending people is too dangerous. We were very arrogant in those days because we wanted to beat the Soviets to the moon, but the astronauts were in great danger all the time. One blast of solar wind was It would almost certainly lead to cancer.

the Melanin in mushroomsHowever, it has proven to be highly effective in protecting cells and DNA from harmful electromagnetic radiation, while the fungal substance also slows and disperses particle radiation via a yet-to-be-identified mechanism. Whatever the reason, Maurer says NASA researchers found they were able to block more than 99% of the radiation using just 8 cm (3 inches) of material — a huge improvement over regolith, which takes 3 meters (10 feet) to provide the same The thing. Protection level.

What’s more, it is estimated that these habitat structures can grow very quickly, within about 30 to 60 days. The process will involve lowering a sealed package, including a toilet and galley sink, the interior of which will be inflated by onboard gases, its rubbery shell filled with water and a mixture of fungal spores as well as autotrophic algae that grow and harden according to certain conditions. Template shape. This rapid readiness may not be very important at first, as the first structural templates will be placed remotely long before humans appear, but Maurer’s team envisions how they could be deployed to grow “micro-tents” (tiny tents) within hours. For people exploring extraterrestrial landscapes.

Although tests on Earth have achieved impressive results, there is always the potential for unforeseen challenges to arise once this concept is introduced into the harsh environment of space.

“In general,” Rothschild admits, “there are technological risks. Will the structure be strong enough? Will it really provide the insulation that we think it will? What will the material properties be? Will it grow really well?” NASA may not know until the first large-scale structures are placed on the moon’s surface.

But that is still at least a decade away. Nowadays, the project is preparing to send proof-of-concept models into the sky using Starlab space station It is expected to launch in 2028. Through collaboration between Voyager, Airbus, Virgin, Hilton and other commercial and government partners, Starlab will become the primary low-Earth orbit station after the current International Space Station (ISS) is decommissioned in the early 2030s.

What the first fungal extraterrestrial projects will look like, specifically, is still up for debate. According to Maurer, it might include an interior painting “that will act as a science experiment while being an interior design installation,” or simple furniture like a sofa or chair, or even a bed that resembles a “Hilton in the sky,” which will serve as a “Hilton in the sky.” . Encase sleepers to hold them in place during zero gravity. Around the same time, the program will send a small-scale model to the Moon for in-situ testing, with a full-scale structure to follow a few years later. And then Mars.

Structures that build themselves

“It’s almost like science fiction,” says Jonathan Desi Olive, an assistant professor at the David R. Raven School of Architecture and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and director of the MycoMatters Lab. “They are doing real biology to imagine possible futures.”

He agrees that their self-propagating and radiation-shielding properties make fungi ideal for colonizing low-resource, high-radiation areas on Mars and the Moon, saying of the NASA project: “They are working on getting [structures] They basically grow themselves through cooperation between multiple organisms, which is very exciting.

“I hope that the government will see the need to conduct this research not only for space exploration, but also here on Earth.”

Maurer, who is currently involved in a variety of fungal projects, both here and in the sky, says there has been a big learning curve to bring what he’s picked up from working with mushrooms into the harsh environment of space, where “the building is pushed outward.” Instead of trying to get off.”

That’s already weird enough, he says, but there’s also the boiling point of water to consider. “With no pressure, even at subzero temperatures, water boils. Water is an integral part of the program, so pressure, temperature and gas/nutrient exchange must be very precise.

He shakes his head and laughs.

“It’s not quite rocket science, but it’s pretty close.”