NASA mushroom could construct houses in space in the long run

How to construct a house on earth: Call Home Depot and schedule a delivery.

Transporting wood, metal and glass to Mars – tens of millions of kilometres away and only accessible by spacecraft – is far more difficult.

A team from NASA Ames Research Center has proposed an answer: “mycotecture,” the creation of Building material using the fungal threads of mushrooms.

NASA hopes that the fungus could grow tiny spores into our future homes on Mars – without expensive delivery costs.

“Currently, traditional habitat designs for Mars are like a turtle carrying our houses on its back,” said the lead researcher Lynn Rothschildwhose team will receive two million dollars over two years to further develop the concept. “It's 100% reliable, but it takes a tremendous amount of energy to carry it around.”

In ice cube trays in a windowless laboratory, Rothschild grows mushrooms to check their resistance to the intense conditions of space, comparable to intense heat and bitter cold. Colleague Maikel Rheinstadter Canada's McMaster University exposes it to microgravity and deadly ionizing radiation.

The goal is to create a product like particle board that may be used to construct houses, garages, sheds and furniture that shall be used not only by astronauts but someday by peculiar residents. Artemis Campaign has set itself the goal of sending humans to the moon in 2026. Life on Mars isn’t far-off.

“As NASA prepares to go deeper into the cosmos than ever before, it will need new science and technology that does not yet exist,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a written statement. “This new research is a milestone for our Artemis campaign as we prepare to return to the Moon to live, learn, invent, create – and then venture to Mars and beyond.”

Life in an area capsule is simply too cramped. The Apollo 11 lunar module, with which astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin briefly landed on the moon in 1969, was as big as cell block C of the federal prison at Alcatraz.

On Earth, we will easily book an Airbnb or stay on a friend's couch. On Mars, nonetheless, our fate is way grimmer: death by freezing to death, carbon dioxide poisoning, radiation exposure, or being sucked into space by an enormous dust devil.

You can't dial 911. And the red planet doesn't care about our suffering.

But constructing a house on the moon or Mars is a large challenge.

“When we leave planet Earth, we have a huge, huge problem – and that is the cost of transporting cargo in space,” Rothschild said.

When constructing at home or at work, I don't care if something weighs 300 kilos. But there may be a 'startup cost' to get something heavy out of Earth's gravity. Can I take this 300-pound device and reduce it to perhaps 30 ounces?”

“Life” that begins as a tiny cell, seed or spore “can solve this 'upmass' problem,” she said.

A typical mushroom, a red-colored species called Ganoderma lucidum, seems to supply probably the most practical strategy for the project., called Mycotecture Off Planet. The fungus is native to parts of Europe and China, where it grows on decaying deciduous trees.

Transported as dormant spores in a compact habitat, they’d begin to grow after being supplied with water and algae, rehydrated wood chips or nutrient broth.

When mixed with regolith, the loose rock and mud found on the surface of the Moon and Mars, it could form a stable structure.

The fungal mycelium, the tens of millions of underground threads that make up the basis structure of mushrooms, fills every space available to them, Rothschild said.

They would take the shape of a prefabricated inflatable frame, like a balloon. “They don't care if they grow into the structure of a house, a table or a chair,” she said.

The frame would also limit the expansion of fungi, stopping contamination of the Martian environment. Escaping fungi could destroy other species.

“If there were another form of life on Mars, it would be the greatest tragedy if we were to destroy it,” Rothschild said.

Fungus was brought into producing other materials, comparable to synthetic leather. The Emeryville-based company MycoWorks developed a cloth called Reishi (after the Japanese name of the mushroom genus) that appears and seems like leather but comprises no animal parts. Bolt threadbased in Berkeley also produces a leather-like material from mushroom mycelium.

This isn’t easy, because fungi need some care. If it is simply too cold, their growth slows down. If it is simply too hot, they turn into dust. To ward off radiation damage, the fungus may very well be genetically modified to contain the protective pigment melanin, the nasty black slime that grows in dishwashers and other dark, damp surfaces.

Once the mushroom has passed the rigorous tests, it is shipped to the Stanford University laboratory. Debbie Senesky for mechanical evaluation. The team will ask themselves: Have the tough conditions on Mars modified its physical resilience?

NASA can also be working with Cleveland-based architect and mycologist Chris Maurer of Redhouse Studio. Maurer and his partners are working to revolutionize the way in which we live—not with bricks and mortar, but with “bio-bricks,” a combination of fungal mycelium and plant waste.

“Currently there are no building codes for the moon and Mars,” Rothschild said.

The mushroom could form a structure inside a couple of weeks, she said. To save time, NASA could start construction during a brief first visit, so work is accomplished by the point the astronauts arrive.

If successful, the fungus could even produce edible mushrooms.

“Wouldn’t it be cool,” Rothschild said, “to have a table that produces your dinner?”