Mars astronauts could live in houses made of yeast and jello, say scientists

9dev

This is exciting! And even if the result isn’t suitable as the only building material, there’s surely composite applications or buildings without a need to hold atmospheric pressure.

Neywiny

> Per the paper, testing the ability of the yeast-gelatin building foam to retain the pressure necessary to keep humans from succumbing to the Martian elements was outside the scope of the research. > “A practical lunar or Martian habitat must integrate pressure retention, gas tightness, mechanical support, thermal regulation, radiation shielding, dust protection, repairability, and resource recycling,” the paper notes. “These requirements will likely require hybrid architectures” that include both the yeast foam and more traditional structures. So no. They could very well need 99% "traditional" structures. All they did was find a way to make a semi-biological expanding foam. And that's cool. But it seems to be using Mars as a marketing crutch

piker

> According to the paper, the material can be broken down and reused too - provided at least a single yeast cell survives the process, and the cold, barren wasteland of Mars, that is. Is radiation a non-factor here given the simplicity of the organism?

fghorow

It's getting harder and harder to tell these days when El Reg is being serious. I think this is a case when that is so, but I'm not sure...

metalman

ya, no. 1 atm = 14 psi which is not structuraly difficult to achive, but it needs to be very robust and absolutly impermiable to gasses. And there are many possible fabric solutions that can be shipped to mars as ready to inflate habitats with air locks.Systems would need to be installed, and very likely the only good and safe places will be smaller craters with steep tall sides. Step.2 would be tenting small craters, and then perhaps growing structures could become practical. But if the upgraded starship can land 100 tons on mars, then that would deliver habitats big enough for crews, crops, and manufacturing. The key will be finding a spot with, year round solar, metals, and water in a very small radius, without that it's just a stunt.