Microbial Innovations: Building Dream Homes on Mars with Martian Dust

For many years, the dream of colonizing Mars has existed largely in the realm of science fiction. Yet, numerous successful landings on the Red Planet in recent decades have transformed this distant fantasy into a more plausible vision of the future. Despite this potential, there are still significant challenges to overcome before humanity can begin setting up permanent structures on Mars.

One major hurdle is the logistics of construction. Transporting heavy loads of materials millions of miles from Earth is neither practical nor cost-effective. Instead, researchers are exploring how to utilize Martian resources to create the necessary infrastructure for human habitation.

Dr. Congrui Grace Jin from Texas A&M University, alongside her colleagues from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, may have found a promising solution. Their groundbreaking research focuses on bio-manufacturing engineered living materials. They have developed a synthetic lichen system capable of creating building materials autonomously, without human intervention. Their latest study, which received funding from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program, reveals how this technology could be applied to construct structures on Mars using regolith, which is a mixture of dust, sand, and rocks found on the planet’s surface.

This innovative approach has the potential to transform how we conceive extraterrestrial construction by enabling the creation of structures in challenging environments with limited resources. “By mimicking natural lichens, we can establish a synthetic community,” Jin explains. “We have devised a method for producing synthetic lichens that bind Martian regolith particles into cohesive structures. Through 3D printing, we can then fabricate diverse forms, including buildings and furniture.”

While other researchers have experimented with various methods to bind Martian regolith, such as magnesium-based and sulfur-based alternatives, these approaches often rely on significant human oversight. This reliance on manual labor presents a significant obstacle, particularly given that Mars presents a clear lack of personnel for such tasks.

Another avenue of research has focused on microbe-mediated self-growing technology. Scientists have explored numerous strategies, including using bacterial biomineralization and ureolytic bacteria to create calcium carbonate bricks, along with NASA’s investigation of fungal mycelium as a bonding agent. However, this technology is not yet fully autonomous, as it often depends on a specific microbial strain that requires a continuous supply of nutrients from outside sources.

Jin’s research team has tackled this limitation by developing a fully autonomous self-growing system that integrates multiple species. This innovative approach negates the need for external nutrient supplies, significantly enhancing feasibility for Martian construction.

Their design leverages heterotrophic filamentous fungi as producers of essential bonding materials, given their remarkable resilience in harsh environments compared to heterotrophic bacteria. This fungi is paired with photoautotrophic diazotrophic cyanobacteria, establishing a synthetic lichen system that thrives on Martian resources.

The operational mechanics are simple yet efficient: the cyanobacteria fix carbon dioxide and dinitrogen from Mars’s atmosphere, converting them into organic nutrients and oxygen to help the filamentous fungi thrive. This partnership creates a highly functional system capable of binding regolith particles into a resilient structure using only Martian resources—air, light, and an inorganic liquid medium.

“The potential of this self-growing technology for enabling long-term exploration and colonization on other planets is remarkable,” Jin states. The next phase of her research involves creating regolith ink for 3D printing bio-structures, further advancing this exciting prospect.

Dr. Jin serves as an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Technology program at Texas A&M University. Her collaborators include Dr. Richard Wilson, Nisha Rokaya, and Erin Carr from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This project is administered by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES), which serves as the official research agency for Texas A&M Engineering.