On Episode 132 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Lynn Rothschild on how mushroom mycelia might be utilized as a Mars habitat-building resource.
This week, we're diving deep into some really clever and cutting-edge tech for Martian habitats... made from fungus! Dr. Rothschild of the NASA Ames Research Center has been working for years on how the organic material can be used to make bricks, to create shaped structures, and even to create an "astropharmacy" to supply certain compounds needed by the crew of a Mars excursion! And it is sufficiently enticing that NASA's NIAC innovation program has given her no less than five grants (which are not easy to get!) to study the possibilities.
Join us for this really engaging and blue-sky conversation!
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Space news of the week
- Top 'safety risk' for the ISS is a leak that has been ongoing for 5 years, NASA audit finds
- Solar storm bombarding Earth now may reach 'extreme' levels, sparking auroras down to Alabama and straining hurricane-weakened power grids
- 'It was 3 hours of magic': Spectacular auroras thrill stargazers across the world (and internet) as intense geomagnetic storm batters Earth (photos)
- Jupiter's Great Red Spot is being squeezed, Hubble Telescope finds — and nobody knows why (video)
- NASA - Lynn J. Rothschild
- Could Future Homes on the Moon and Mars Be Made of Fungi?
- There could be fungus among us on Mars with this wild astronaut house idea
Model Falcon 9!
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About This Week In Space
This Week in Space covers the new space age. Every Friday we take a deep dive into a fascinating topic. What's happening with the new race to the moon and other planets? When will SpaceX really send people to Mars?
Join Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from Space.com as they tackle those questions and more each week on Friday afternoons. You can subscribe today on your favorite podcatcher.
Rod Pyle is an author, journalist, television producer and Editor-in-Chief of Ad Astra magazine. He has written 18 books on space history, exploration, and development, including Space 2.0, Innovation the NASA Way, Interplanetary Robots, Blueprint for a Battlestar, Amazing Stories of the Space Age, First On the Moon, and Destination Mars
In a previous life, Rod produced numerous documentaries and short films for The History Channel, Discovery Communications, and Disney. He also worked in visual effects on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the Battlestar Galactica reboot, as well as various sci-fi TV pilots. His most recent TV credit was with the NatGeo documentary on Tom Wolfe's iconic book The Right Stuff.
Responsible for Space.com's editorial vision, Tariq Malik has been the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com since 2019 and has covered space news and science for 18 years. He joined the Space.com team in 2001, first as an intern and soon after as a full-time spaceflight reporter covering human spaceflight, exploration, astronomy and the night sky. He became Space.com's managing editor in 2009. As on-air talent has presented space stories on CNN, Fox News, NPR and others.
Tariq is an Eagle Scout (yes, he earned the Space Exploration merit badge), a Space Camp veteran (4 times as a kid, once as an adult), and has taken the ultimate "vomit comet" ride while reporting on zero-gravity fires. Before joining Space.com, he served as a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering city and education beats. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University.
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