NASA advances research to grow habitats in space from fungi – As NASA prepares for long-duration missions to the moon and Mars for the benefit of all, a habitat-growing concept selected Wednesday by the agency could help “grow” homes using fungi for future explorers.

From the article

>A team of researchers at NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley will receive new funding under the NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program to propel their habitat research.

>The Phase III NIAC award will provide $2 million over two years to continue technology development of the [Mycotecture Off Planet project](https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/ames/could-future-homes-on-the-moon-and-mars-be-made-of-fungi/) in preparation for a potential future demonstration mission. The work is led by Lynn Rothschild, a senior research scientist at NASA Ames.

>”As NASA prepares to explore farther into the cosmos than ever before, it will require new science and technology that doesn’t yet exist” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA’s space technology team and the NIAC program unlock visionary ideas—ideas that make the impossible, possible.

>”This new research is a steppingstone to our Artemis campaign as we prepare to go back to the moon to live, to learn, to invent, to create—then venture to Mars and beyond.”