Mars shelter problem can be solved with engineered yeast: paper
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Researchers in Hong Kong develop low-energy ‘living’ building material for quick, cheap construction.

Future settlers on Mars would need houses, but they must either spend huge sums transporting construction materials from Earth or use enormous amounts of energy to melt Martian soil into bricks. Scientists in Hong Kong say they have developed a quick and low-cost “living” building material made from genetically engineered yeast, gelatin and sand that can be 3D printed under conditions simulating the Martian environment. Their study, published online last month in Chem Circularity, an…

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    • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      44 minutes ago

      Qiu said the team estimated that producing 1 cubic metre would require only tens of kilograms of raw materials supplied from Earth, with about 70 to 80 per cent of the mass consisting of gelatin and the remainder comprising nutrients for the yeast.

      “If methane, carbon dioxide and water ice on Mars can be converted into organic gelatin or nutrients, then in theory this number could become zero,” he said.