Biomaterials for organically generated habitats beyond Earth.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40601749.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adp4985 and PMC identifier 12219502.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Sustaining life beyond Earth requires the creation of habitats, which is typically assumed to require costly transport of high-mass components from Earth. Here, we investigate an alternative approach based on in situ fabrication using biologically generated materials. We show that several common biomaterials are capable of blocking UV radiation, transmitting visible light, and maintaining pressure differences sufficient to permanently stabilize liquid H<sub>2</sub>O in a vacuum or low-pressure environment. As a proof of concept, we then demonstrate growth of eukaryotic green alga in a 3D printed PLA bioplastic habitat under Mars-relevant conditions of a 600 Pa CO<sub>2</sub> background atmosphere. Our results demonstrate that products of biology itself can be used to create habitats in extraterrestrial environments. This approach is scalable, sustainable, and plausibly could be extended to construction of human habitats in the future.
Medical subject headings
- Ecosystem
- Biocompatible Materials