Last week, Pip and I visited a small settlement in Jezero Crater with three weird looking houses made from mushrooms.
Yep. Mushrooms. On Mars.
We took a guided tour to learn about this odd experiment, a way for scientists and engineers to test theories about using "reishi mycelium" to make these strange structures.
Dr. Malone, our tour guide said, "These reishi mushrooms are tough as hardwood. We made some blocks out of them, then tried to crush them. But we couldn't!"
He showed us a video of someone sawing them, and that worked. Then he showed someone hitting them with a big hammer, and they didn’t break.
"Then we put it into a press and laid 2,500 pounds of force on the block, and it held up."
He walked us around inside one of the mushroom houses. "If we can grow houses on Mars, we don't need fancy equipment shipped all the way from Earth."
They started the house with a metal framework, then mounted the dormant mushrooms in big sheets, then added water. The mushrooms grew around the frame like sheets of plywood. Easy peasy.
"We feed the mushrooms a special soup of bacteria, called cyanobacteria," he said. "It uses solar energy and water to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and fungus food."
Pip said, "So you need food, water, and sun, then BING, you get a house?"
"Correct," Dr. Malone replied. "We have a house with three layers. The outside is made of ice we mine right here on Mars. It protects the whole thing from radiation. Some of the ice melts, and the second layer – the cyanobacteria - drink it."
He pointed out the icy window to a second, smaller house. "The bacteria use the water and light shining through the ice to make oxygen and food for the bottom layer of mushrooms."
After we drove away in Rocky, Pip asked me, "How do you clean a mushroom house?"
"How?"
"With a mush-broom!"
More info: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/myco-architecture
If you would like to live inside a mushroom house on Mars, send me a picture at
We took a guided tour to learn about this odd experiment, a way for scientists and engineers to test theories about using "reishi mycelium" to make these strange structures.
Dr. Malone, our tour guide said, "These reishi mushrooms are tough as hardwood. We made some blocks out of them, then tried to crush them. But we couldn't!"
He showed us a video of someone sawing them, and that worked. Then he showed someone hitting them with a big hammer, and they didn’t break.
"Then we put it into a press and laid 2,500 pounds of force on the block, and it held up."
He walked us around inside one of the mushroom houses. "If we can grow houses on Mars, we don't need fancy equipment shipped all the way from Earth."
They started the house with a metal framework, then mounted the dormant mushrooms in big sheets, then added water. The mushrooms grew around the frame like sheets of plywood. Easy peasy.
"We feed the mushrooms a special soup of bacteria, called cyanobacteria," he said. "It uses solar energy and water to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and fungus food."
Pip said, "So you need food, water, and sun, then BING, you get a house?"
"Correct," Dr. Malone replied. "We have a house with three layers. The outside is made of ice we mine right here on Mars. It protects the whole thing from radiation. Some of the ice melts, and the second layer – the cyanobacteria - drink it."
He pointed out the icy window to a second, smaller house. "The bacteria use the water and light shining through the ice to make oxygen and food for the bottom layer of mushrooms."
After we drove away in Rocky, Pip asked me, "How do you clean a mushroom house?"
"How?"
"With a mush-broom!"
More info: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/myco-architecture
If you would like to live inside a mushroom house on Mars, send me a picture at
RamoneRocketeer -at- gmail -dot- com.
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