NASA grows mushroom houses on the moon

Jakarta – go to an outdoor place – let alone living there – it’s expensive and dangerous. It would take about a million dollars to get half a kilogram (1 pound) of material to the moon, and even more to Mars.

And along the way, all human space explorers must survive radiation, extreme pressure, and temperature changes as well as random micrometeorites hurtling through the void like bullets.

According to a growing program at NASA, the solution involves growing structures mould on the moon – and then beyond.

“You can’t use planks or bricks,” said Chris Maurer, founder of Redhouse, a Cleveland-based architecture firm that partnered with NASA to solve the construction puzzle. an outdoor place This.

“So what are you going to build? And it’s very expensive to use an already built campus.”

He said ISRU – In-Situ Resource Utilization – is the biggest concept that researchers have done – “which means you build with what you have there, which is probably water, and regolith ( moon dust) you have there”.

As it turns out, these scarce resources are more than enough to feed some species mouldwhich can then be formed into a very strong building material, stronger than concrete, and has many additional benefits.

The mycotexture wonder

An effort to use such mycotecture – called the Mycotecture Off Planet Structures at Destination project – recently received a Phase III contract with NASA, meaning it will receive the necessary funding to proceed. In other words, mould ready to take off.

Despite the influence of technology mould now this is really amazing, creating the stuff itself is amazingly easy. Mycotecture – use of fixed materials mould for constructive purposes – has been a growing trend in recent years, and has been used in everything from art to construction to “bio-cycling” waste.

Maurer’s company is engaged in challenges on Earth.

In Namibia, for example, a red house runs a program that uses micromaterials to build homes for climate refugees as well as plant crops. mould which can be consumed to overcome the problem of food shortage.

When NASA astrobiologist and project director Lynn Rothschild recognized this and other myco-efforts, she realized their potential use for space exploration.

Since then, microtechnology has been supported by famous NASA figures such as geologist Jim Head, who trained astronauts for the Apollo lunar exploration program, and Apollo 15 commander David Scott, one of 12 men who walked on the moon.

Nelson’s tour

On Earth, Maurer’s team created mico “bricks” by simply feeding organic material from plants or construction waste to different species mould. The resulting material is then heated and compacted into blocks that are harder than concrete and much better for the environment.

However, this process is a bit backwards when it comes to space.

“Force is not as important on the moon or on Mars because gravity is much less and the lifting force will be outward because you are inside a vessel under pressure,” explained Maurer.

“Instead of gravity pressing down on your building, the air is pushing out, so you don’t need good materials for compressive strength, but for tensile strength to withstand that pressure. ” In other words, at an outdoor placethe building does not fall, but crumbles.

The plan is to start with a blow mold that grows the micromaterial using a mixture of spores mould and algae that came from Earth, that eat the water and regolith that are already present on the moon.

“That way, you can use some living biology and nutrients,” says Maurer, “and then you can add a lot of water as you get it from the ice below the surface. That will be about 90 percent of the earth’s mass. terminal building, so you have a lot of stuff at the terminal” without the need to carry heavy stuff from Earth.

“It was a big win from the start. NASA said, `It’s going to save trillions of dollars, so we like it’.”

Astronomical Benefits

As research began, more important benefits were soon discovered. It turns out, micromaterials are also very good for insulation from cold as well as protection against micrometeorites and deadly radiation.

“Radiation is a huge obstacle to any crewed mission,” Maurer said. “That’s why we haven’t been back there since the 70s – because it’s too dangerous to send people. We were very stupid in those days because we wanted to beat the Soviets on the moon, but the astronauts were in great danger all the time.” A single solar wind, he explained, would almost certainly cause cancer.

Deep melanin mouldhowever, it has been proven that they are extremely effective in protecting cells and DNA from harmful electromagnetic radiation, while micromaterials also slow down particulate radiation and scatter through methods that have not yet been proven.

Whatever the reason, Maurer said researchers at NASA have found they can block more than 99 percent of radiation with just 8 cm (3 inches) of material — a huge improvement over regolith, which 3 meters (10 feet) must be provided. the same level of protection.

In addition, it is estimated that the structure of this habitat can grow very quickly, around 30-60 days.

The process would involve landing a sealed package, including a toilet and kitchen sink, whose insides are pressurized with gas on board because the rubber shell is full of water and a mixture of spores. mould and autotrophic algae that grow and harden according to shape mould.

That quick preparation may not seem so important at first, because mould The first structures will be installed long before humans follow suit, but Maurer’s team is thinking about how they could be used to grow “pup tents” (small tents) in a matter of hours. time for people who study the landscape. an outdoor place.

Although tests on Earth have produced impressive results, there is always the potential for unexpected challenges to emerge once the concept is brought to real Earth environments an outdoor place.

“In general,” Rothschild admitted, “there are technological risks. Will the structure be strong enough? Will it really provide the insulation we envision? What are the properties of the material? Will it grow well?” NASA may not know until the first full-scale structure is placed on the moon.

However, that is still at least ten years away.

Currently, the project is preparing to send a proof-of-concept model to space with the expected launch of the Starlab space station in 2028. As a result of collaboration between Voyager, Airbus, Virgin, Hilton, and other commercial and government partners, Starlab will serve as the station’s primary low Earth orbit once the current International Space Station (ISS) is decommissioned in the early 2030s.

What the first myco-extraterrestrial project will look like is still being discussed. According to Maurer, the project could include interior panels “that would be a scientific experiment while being an interior design installation”, simple furniture such as a sofa or an armchair, or even a bed that would like a “Hilton Hotel in the Sky”, which would cover the sleeper to keep them in place at zero level. Around the same time, the program will send a small-scale model to the moon for on-site testing, with a full-scale structure to follow a few years later. After that, Mars.

A structure that builds itself

“It’s almost like science fiction,” said Jonathan Dessi-Olive, an assistant professor at the David R Ravin School of Architecture and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and director of the MycoMatters Lab. “They’re doing real biology to think about futures. “

He agrees that self-breeding and radiation protection properties make up for it mould ideal for colonizing resource-poor, high-radiation Martian and lunar landscapes, and he said of the NASA project: “They’re trying to [struktur] it can basically reproduce itself through multi-organ cooperation, which is very interesting.

“I hope that the government not only sees the need to carry out this research to investigate an outdoor placebut also on Earth.”

Maurer, who is currently involved in several miko projects, both here and at an outdoor placethat there was a significant learning curve in taking what he got from working with him mould on the ground to the environment an outdoor place the extreme, where “the building pushes out instead of trying to collapse.”

That’s odd enough, he says, but there’s also the boiling point of water to consider. “Without pressure, even at sub-zero temperatures, water will boil. Water is an essential part of the program, so pressure, temperature and gas/nutrient exchange must be very precise.”

He shook his head and smiled.

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