Mushrooms in Space
Are Mushrooms Truly Magical: Part III
This is the last in a three-part series on mushrooms—and my personal favorite. For those of you as obsessed as I am with fungi, I’ll be posting some recommendations for my favorite mushroom coffees and supplements next week (paid post).
I wanted to offer a special thanks to everyone for your continued support of Enlightened Omnivore. If you haven’t already, please consider following me on Facebook and Instagram, and check out my first Enlightened Omnivore Podcast with Mushroom Expert Rachel Linzer.
Next week, I’ll revisit my March trip to France with Part Five of Pruning in Provence. If you ever have questions or suggestions for future posts, let me know in the comments. Be well!
Mushrooms in Space
Earlier this month, SpaceX successfully launched the Starship super-heavy rocket that is supposed to send humans to Mars by 2029. SpaceX is different because its rockets are reusable and can (sometimes) land back on Earth, rather than simply burning up in the atmosphere like previous concepts. This development has dramatically changed the economics of space travel, reducing the costs by 90% in some cases, and making Elon Musk a bunch of money. But that doesn’t mean space travel is cheap. Some estimates say it costs SpaceX a minimum of $2,000 per pound just to get cargo to achieve escape velocity. And planned trips to the Moon and Mars have already cost tens of billions of dollars in R&D.
Any kind of human settlement on Mars is going to cost a lot to build. And it’s probably not going to look like structures here on Earth. Brick and mortar are heavy and bulky, which means they’re less than ideal as cargo on a rocket ship. So if concrete isn’t coming with the astronauts, what is?
What if a Mars-bound spacecraft was loaded with microscopic materials that weighed next to nothing when blasting off from Earth, but instead grew into cinder blocks, two by fours and other building materials during the eight month journey to the Red Planet? What if the rockets also contained small factories that could passively create building materials once on the Martian surface, effectively becoming planetary lumber yards for future Earthling settlements?
This “make not take” model isn’t an Issac Assimov plot line. It’s seriously being considered by NASA–and several private space companies–as the only viable solution. And guess what? Mushrooms might hold the answer.
Three weeks ago, Enlightened Omnivore looked at Mushrooms as Food, then Mushrooms as Medicine, and now it’s time to see how Mushrooms as Material might quite literally take us to other planets. But, before I venture deeper into why rocket scientists are playing with mycelium, it’s worth spending a little time on how humans have always used fungi to fabricate.
Fungi Fabrication
Fungi have been used to build things for centuries. The amadou hat worn by mushroom messiah, Phil Stamets, is made out of Fomes fomentarius, a tree fungus that can be pounded and shaped into a felt-like material. The stuff was even found with the mummified remains of 5,000 year-old Otzi the Iceman, a Copper Era homo sapiens who probably used the stuff as tinder to light a much needed campfire in the frigid Austrian Alps.
The fungus Piptoporus betulinus has a leather-like quality making it an excellent crafting material . It gets one of its common names, Razor Strop Fungus, because barbers used to hone their shaving blades on belt-like “strops” made of the stuff.
Earlier this month, I mentioned the medicinal benefits of the reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum). A staple in Asian medicine cabinets, it’s also been used in jewelry and art, carved into statues or pendants, and ground into pigments for dyeing textiles.
Fungi as Art
Fungi as art has been around since stone tools were the norm. The man-like Tassili mushroom figure carved into a cave wall some 7,000 years ago in present-day Algeria, has mushrooms sprouting from his arms and legs. In the far eastern province of Chukotka, Russia, fungi-helmeted figurines pop up among the almost inaccessible petroglyphs of the Pegtymel archeological site. Ancient Mayan sculptures, commonly called mushroom stones, sport stoic anthropomorphic faces. These Smurf-like garden gnomes, found high in the Guatemalan mountains, date back to 1000 BCE.
It appears that contemporary artists are focusing less on depicting mushrooms in art, and more on using them as materials for their installations and sculptures. Folks like Tomás Saraceno, Diana Scherer, and Marta de Menezes sometimes even incorporate live mycelium, so that it can continue to grow and interact with other media for the life of the piece. David Benjamin’s MOMA-sponsored mycelium tower, won an award for its novel use.
But none of these spore sculptors has done more for the world of mushroom materials than Phil Ross. Starting out as a chef, Ross first explored mushrooms as food, but he quickly became enamored with their potential as material. Ross has built furniture and small structures–like his Mycotecture Alpha in 2009–using mycelium bricks. He even coined the term “mycotecture” to describe the hybrid mycology/architecture world he was creating. In 2013, Ross combined his love of art, design and biotech into the business Mycoworks, launching the mycotecture industry.
Mushrooms as Material
Fungus as building material has continued to evolve and grow with more than a dozen companies all over the world, like Mycohab, MOGU, and Biohm, building with mushrooms.
Mycologists basically play off fungi’s natural ability to surround and swallow the materials they need to grow. Researchers can inoculate composite materials or substrates with a type of fungus. These substrates work both as food, and as a kind of structural scaffolding. The fungi’s fiber-like hyphae weave together and embrace this substrate (saw dust is a nice one), creating a lumber-like “brick” that doesn’t need chemical binders or glues. The resulting material is lightweight, relatively cheap, fire-resistant and sound proof. It also has the added benefit of being non-toxic.
A big part of the appeal of mushrooms as materials has to do with environmental benefits. The construction industry consumes a lot of energy and makes a lot of waste. Ten percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from building things, and concrete alone might be seven percent of all carbon emissions. The US created 600 million tons of construction and demolition waste in 2018; more than twice the amount of generated municipal solid waste for the same year.
Mycelium-based building materials are 100% biodegradable, and can even be grown from organic waste materials (often agricultural waste), effectively turning trash into viable construction material that is easily recycled or degraded into safe and beneficial organic compounds that don’t need to end up in a landfill.
Back to Space
As terrestrial mycelium building gains tractions, NASA has been paying attention. Space cargo needs to be lightweight, and low mass. Mushrooms might just be the perfect solution for upcoming Mars missions. To learn more about NASA’s hopes for this technology, I reached out to a scientist who actually works for NASA’s mycology skunkworks. And when this esteemed mycologist said he couldn’t speak on the record about his research, I got even more excited. Clandestine astro-fungi. Excellent!
Traditionally, space missions have followed a "Take Not Make" approach, where nearly all resources and equipment must come along for the ride from Earth. This model, used in missions like the Apollo trips to the moon, meant NASA even shipped along a dune buggy. For extended missions, this is prohibitively expensive, and requires frequent resupplying. Case in point, the International Space Station (ISS) has to be resupplied every two to three months. Multiply the distance by millions of miles to Mars, and the whole program starts to break down.
Lynn Rothschild, for NASA Headquarters Space Technology Mission Directorate, (and not my anonymous source) said it more plainly. “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.”
To address the turtle shell, NASA would rather prioritize the “make not take” approach, and according to my sources, fungi “elegantly” address this mission objective. Mushrooms are some of the lightest organisms on the planet. They “replicate” or grow rather simply, even in zero gravity. And because they can start out as a single cell, they don’t take up much space until you need them. Leveraging these characteristics further, NASA is exploring an inflatable fungus greenhouses sent to the planet remotely even before humans arrive.
“Wait. You’re going to build a hardware store on Mars?” I ask?
It sounded almost too easy. Throw a beachball on the surface of the planet full of fungus, show up a few years later, and start assembling the mushroom legos into your dream home.
So what’s the catch? In a word, “regolith.”
My secret scientist explains that here on Earth, we take our plentiful dirt for granted; or more specifically, our soil. When it comes to growing things like plants and fungi, the extra stuff in our soils are crucial. Full of organic and mineral compounds, nutrients, microorganisms and bugs, our dirt is very much alive. On Mars, scientists assume these life-sustaining ingredients will be missing. Instead, Mars just has regolith, which is a fancy way of saying rocks and dust and more rocks very much not alive.
So, how are we to raise mushrooms on Mars without soil?
The answer is cyanobacteria.
No, that’s not some poisonous Martian organism that’s about to invade our spacecraft. It’s a kind of Earth-based bacterium that converts solar energy, water, and carbon dioxide into oxygen and other fungus friendly foods. The first space mushrooms will likely have a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria in order to survive. This bacteria/fungi hybrid has the added benefit potentially producing oxygen and food for astronauts. Pretty cool.
But then I’m filled with a sudden anxious thought. What happens if the mushrooms get away? How do we ensure we don’t contaminate Mars with rogue fungi? Could the higher levels of radiation on Mars cause a cordyceps-like mutation and turn this life-sustaining mycelium into a zombie-making strain the likes of the comic book/TV series, The Last of Us.
My mystery mycologist takes a long pause. I fear he might hang up the phone.
He calmly explains that the good news is, Mars is pretty inhospitable to any known organisms, including fungi. Low oxygen, no liquid water, and high amounts of radiation make it unlikely any mushrooms would survive outside their greenhouse. But, there are examples of fungi defying the odds, like the stuff found on the Soviet-era MIR space station in the 1980s.
Described as an "aggressive space fungus" by Soviet microbiologist Natalia Novikova, a green mold was found growing all over the space station, along doorways, windows, and even behind control panels. Even worse, the fungal hyphae were secreting a mild acid that had the potential to pit and damage wiring, interior switches, and the Soyuz escape pod. Yikes!
In more recent years, the ISS has also been infiltrated by fungus and mold, making me wonder about the hygiene of our beloved astronauts and cosmonauts. Could somebody send these guys some clorox wipes?
Although these molds and fungi have demonstrated little risk to astronauts so far, scientists are concerned about extended exposure and the possibility of mutations. That’s why they are looking at ways to keep unwanted fungus and bacteria in check.
Heat is an obvious choice. More fungi don’t like temperatures over 160 degrees. Radiation could also work, although recent research has suggested fungi are 200 times more resistant to radiation than we are. It is also possible that we could genetically engineer the fungi with a “kill switch” to prevent them from living outside the greenhouse. When I asked my science friend what that kill switch might look like, he simply said, “no-comment.”
Interesting….
Bringing things back to Earth, I reflected on all the great discoveries that NASA research has brought us Earthlings: like Tang and the DustBuster. I can only imagine what benefits space mushrooms will have for those of us who never leave planet Earth. I asked my mycology mate what he thought, and I got an answer that surprised me. In fact, I’m still processing its significance. Here’s what he said.
“Space is inhospitable, and our planet is on the way to becoming more inhospitable to us. Maybe if we spend more time in Space, we will learn how to appreciate what we have, and how to live more responsibly right here on Earth.”
I guess sometimes you have to travel really far away in order to realize just how good you have things right here at home. Let’s hope more folks learn that lesson real soon.
Steve, I am overwhelmed by the confluence of solid research and facts clearly presented on the one hand, and your eloquent, pleasing writing style.
As the Navy says, Bravo Zulu, code for Well Don!
Nick Brown, Newport, RI