3/26/2023 0 Comments Mushrooms on mars nasaThe cyanobacteria will then be able to take water from the first layer and photosynthesize the sunlight that shines through the ice to provide oxygen for the astronauts and nutrients for the mycelia inside. That water serves as a protection from radiation and trickles down to the second layer – the cyanobacteria.” The outer-most layer is made up of frozen water ice, perhaps tapped from the resources on the Moon or Mars. “These pieces come together in an elegant habitat concept with a three-layered dome. “That’s where something called cyanobacteria comes in – a kind of bacterium that can use energy from the Sun to convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and fungus food,” NASA writes. “Could planetary habitats be fabricated with fungi?” Source: S elf-replicating, Self-repairing Planetary Habitats Made of Fungus | NASA 360įor mycelia to thrive on the moon or on Mars, it’ll require a way to eat and breathe. “With the right conditions, they can be coaxed into making new structures – ranging from a material similar to leather to the building blocks for a Mars habitat.” How to Grow Moonshrooms “These tiny threads build complex structures with extreme precision, networking out into larger structures like mushrooms,” NASA explains. The strength of mycelia and the diverse conditions in which various fungi can thrive show promise as a sustainable way to pursue life beyond our atmosphere. Read: How Plants Think: The Controversy of Consciousness The Burgundy Zine Various studies have also demonstrated the communicative properties of mycelia, including a 2013 Ecology Letters study where signals carried through mycelium networks warned neighboring plants of an insect attack. It’s porous, durable, flexible, and one of the largest living organisms on Earth.Īdditionally, mycelium can used for producing a wide variety of material, “from plastics to plant-based meat to scaffolding for growing organisms,” reports a 2019 Scientific American article. Mycelium is the vegetative and fungal compound found in mushrooms, according to 2017 Nature study. “A fungus is a group of organisms that produces spores and eats up organic material, like the yeasts in bread or beer, the mushrooms in your salad, the mold that may grow if you let that salad sit in the refrigerator for too long or even the organisms that produce antibiotics like penicillin,” NASA writes. However, the word embodies a wide variety of species, as NASA describes. When you hear the word fungus, a large red speckled mushroom or a cluster of brown common mushrooms are probably the first images that come to mind. What the FungusĬlusters of fly agaric and common mushrooms growing in the wild Source: Pexels “After the arrival of humans, additional structures could be grown with feedstock of mission-produced organic waste streams.”Īdditionally, Rothschild says that melanin-rich fungi are capable of absorbing radioactivity, which suggests they could provide radiation protection. “A mycotectural building envelope could significantly reduce the energy required for building because in the presence of food stock and water it would grow itself,” Rothschild continues. In the article, Rothschild explains that mycelial materials are stronger than lumber and have more bend strength than reinforced concrete. “Mycelial materials, already commercially produced, are known insulators, fire retardant, and do not produce toxic gasses.” “The fibrous material is fungal mycelium, the vegetative structure of fungi consisting of branching, thread-like hyphae,” wrote Lynn Rothschild, the principal investigator on the early-stage project in a 2018 NASA article. The quest to grow habitats on the surface of the our neighboring planets and moons, the myco-architecture project, has been using fungi to prototype self-replicating and self-healing habitats that can withstand the harsh conditions of outer space. “But the reality may be even stranger – and ‘greener.’ Instead of habitats made of metal and glass, NASA is exploring technologies that could grow structures out of fungi to become our future homes in the stars, and perhaps lead to more sustainable ways of living on Earth as well.” “Science fiction often imagines our future on Mars and other planets as run by machines, with metallic cities and flying cars rising above dunes of red sand,” NASA wrote in an article last Tuesday. NASA recently announced they’re exploring new, green ways to sustain human life in outer space through the help of our beloved fungal friends: mushrooms, or rather, their mycelia. Rainbow mushrooms growing in space Source: GIPHY
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