FEATURE 20 IDEASIf we have to flee Earth to take up residence elsewhere
in the galaxy, you know what we need to take with us?
Mushrooms. Or rather, fungal spores. Not to feed us on
the flight over there, but to grow our houses with.
That’s the thinking behind NASA’s myco-
architecture project. The space agency is concocting a
plan to grow buildings made out of fungi on Mars.
According to astrobiologist Lynn Rothschild, who
works on the project, it’s a no-brainer when you
consider the cost of launching a full-size building into
space, versus some practically weightless life-forms
that happen to be natural builders. “We want to take as
little as possible with us and be able to use the
resources there,” she says.
Many fungi, like mushrooms, grow and spread using
mycelia – networks of thread-like tendrils that form
sturdy materials capable, with minimal
encouragement, of growing to fill any container. On
Earth, fungi-fabricated structures are already used to
make packaging for wine bottles and as particle
board-like materials, and Rothschild suggests they
could even be used for growing refugee shelters.
On Mars, the organisms would need a little water to
get started, which could come from melted ice, plus a
food source. The researchers envisage them being
deployed in large bags that would be inflated on
landing to provide a container to fill. These bags
would contain the food source in dried form and offer
the added benefit of preventing contamination of the
atmosphere with alien fungi. Once the structures were
fully grown, a heating element would be activated,
baking the mycelium network like bread to harden it.
If you’re imagining organic-looking buildings with
walls sprouting toadstools and orchids, though, think
again. Rothschild’s current materials are more “likeMUSHROOMS WITH A VIEW
Space missions test growing buildings out of fungus6
wholewheat bread that’s been left out”, although she
says they could be brightened up by adding colour
pigments, through genetic modifications.
Rothschild already has a myco-made stool in her
office, which took her students about two weeks to
grow, and the team has plans for full-scale structures.
But for future space missions, they’d like to send an
advance party of robots to do the work for them.
“When I travel, I want a hotel to go to,” says
Rothschild. “I don’t want to arrive at an airport and
they say ‘we’re going to build the hotel tonight’ and so I
think the ideal situation would be to send precursor
missions where these things were erected.”NASAare exploring ideas
that involve sending large
3D printers to Mars, that
will use material sourced
from Mars, but using
fungal spores will
significantly reduce the
payload weight