Luna Labs has selected UNC Greensboro (UNCG) chemistry professor Nicholas Oberlies to lead a NASA-funded project exploring whether fungi can be grown into building materials for construction on the moon and Mars.
The project will investigate whether certain fungi can be combined with regolith — loose rock and soil found on the surface of the moon and other planets — to create materials that could one day support construction in places other than Earth.
“When you think about building on the moon or Mars, you’re not going to fill up a rocket ship with bricks and mortar,” Oberlies says. “The goal is to explore whether we can create materials using what’s already available on-site.”
Instead of transporting heavy construction supplies across space, researchers are exploring in-situ resource utilization — using local materials to support exploration and long-term habitation.
Oberlies’ mycology research team will attempt to culture fungi — which grow on dead and decaying matter and form dense webs of thread-like structures called hyphae — on a mixture of regolith and simulated human waste. The goal is to cultivate the hyphae so they link the regolith together into a solid composite, which can be sterilized and compressed into something resembling a brick.
Shelf fungi
“Astronauts will need to recycle as much as possible in space,” Oberlies says. “This is an early-stage exploration of whether mycology can help us turn limited resources into something useful.”
The researchers are particularly interested in shelf fungi and other species known for their rigidity.
“If you’re hiking in the woods and see fungi growing on the side of a tree in little steps, those fungi are actually pretty strong,” says Oberlies.
New frontiers in fungal ecology
The NASA funding was awarded to Luna Labs, a product development company based in Charlottesville, Va. that has expertise in advanced materials testing and structural analysis.
“Luna Labs brings the engineering side, measuring the strength and how much you can compress it,” Oberlies says. “Our expertise is in fungal ecology: which species are good candidates and how we can grow them.”
While Oberlies’ laboratory is best known for studying fungi’s bioactive compounds, the NASA-supported project represents an exciting new application of his team’s expertise.
“This isn’t what we do every single day,” Oberlies says. “But as a geeky scientist who’s read ‘The Martian,’ the idea of contributing something to NASA is cool.”
Sustainable ways
The project is exploratory but reflects the growing reality that future missions to the moon and Mars will require innovative, sustainable ways to live and build far from Earth.
This NASA Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant will run until June 30, 2026.
READ MORE: Bacteria deployed to fix cracks in space bricks
NASA’s Artemis Project lays the foundations for the United States’ efforts to fully explore the moon, cultivate its resources and establish a permanent presence there. The program aims to have operational bases in place before 2040.
The moon projects are testing grounds for eventual human missions to Mars, which NASA expects to happen within the next 20 years.
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