ROOMY!
Nasa wants to grow ‘living’ astronaut homes on Moon and Mars out of mushrooms
NASA scientists are working on a bizarre mushroom Moon and Mars base project that could result in lunar homes for astronauts being built onsite out of living fungi.
The researchers have been conducting tests to determine if they could successfully grow mycelia fungus in outer space soil.
Lynn Rothschild, the principal investigator on the early-stage project, said: "Right now, traditional habitat designs for Mars are like a turtle — carrying our homes with us on our backs — a reliable plan, but with huge energy costs.
"Instead, we can harness mycelia to grow these habitats ourselves when we get there."
She added: "When we design for space, we're free to experiment with new ideas and materials with much more freedom than we would on Earth.
"And after these prototypes are designed for other worlds, we can bring them back to ours."
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If the research goes to plan, future astronauts may be growing their own out of this world homes without the need to carry heavy and expensive building materials.
This could make it much easier and cheaper to colonise the Moon and even Mars.
The scientists have listed other advantages of using mushroom for structures including the fact it can grow and repair itself, is fire retardant and a good insulator.
Nasa also said that the fungi has higher bend strength than reinforced concrete so would be good for moulding into solid designs.
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The current idea is that dormant fungus would be sent up to a Moon base.
Once there, it could be given the right conditions to trigger growth, such as water and photosynthetic bacteria that would provide nutrients.
When the fungus has grown into the designed shape it would then be heat-treated.
The heat would be used to essentially kill it so no more growing would take place and a compact brick could be formed.
The scientists are also working on ways that the fungal mycelia could be layered to protect astronauts from radiation and even provide oxygen inside the mushroom base dome.
The Moon – our closest neighbour explained
Here's what you need to know...
- The Moon is a natural satellite – a space-faring body that orbits a planet
- It's Earth's only natural satellite, and is the fifth biggest in the Solar System
- The Moon measures 2,158 miles across, roughly 0.27 times the diameter of Earth
- Temperatures on the Moon range from minus 173 degrees Celcius to 260 degrees Celcius
- Experts assumed the Moon was another planet, until Nicolaus Copernicus outlined his theory about our Solar System in 1543
- It was eventually assigned to a "class" after Galileo discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610
- The Moon is believed to have formed around 4.51billion years ago
- The strength of its gravitational field is about a sixth of Earth's gravity
- Earth and the Moon have "synchronous rotation", which means we always see the same side of the Moon – hence the phrase "dark side of the Moon"
- The Moon's surface is actually dark, but appears bright in the sky due to its reflective ground
- During a solar eclipse, the Moon covers the Sun almost completely. Both objects appear a similar size in the sky because the Sun is both 400 times larger and farther
- The first spacecraft to reach the Moon was in 1959, as part of the Soviet Union's Lunar program
- The first manned orbital mission was Nasa's Apollo 8 in 1968
- And the first manned lunar landing was in 1969, as part of the Apollo 11 mission
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In other space news, scientists have discovered a new planet orbiting the closest star to our Solar System.
Nasa has announced it will soon stop "hitching rides with Russia" and instead run all-American manned rocket flights starting this year.
And, the space agency is eyeing up a nearby asteroid that contains enough gold to make everyone on Earth a billionaire.
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