Biomaterials for organically generated habitats beyond Earth.

Sustaining life beyond Earth requires the creation of habitats, which is typically assumed to require costly transport of high-mass components from Earth. Here, we investigate an alternative approach based on in situ fabrication using biologically generated materials. We show that several common biomaterials are capable of blocking UV radiation, transmitting visible light, and maintaining pressure differences sufficient to permanently stabilize liquid H2O in a vacuum or low-pressure environment. As a proof of concept, we then demonstrate growth of eukaryotic green alga in a 3D printed PLA bioplastic habitat under Mars-relevant conditions of a 600 Pa CO2 background atmosphere. Our results demonstrate that products of biology itself can be used to create habitats in extraterrestrial environments. This approach is scalable, sustainable, and plausibly could be extended to construction of human habitats in the future.