DARPA Wants to ‘Grow’ Enormous Living Structures in Space
1 min read
Summary
The US agency has released a call for proposals to create enormous self-assembling structures in space using synthetic biology and materials science.
Such megastructures, over 1,640ft long, could be used to create space stations, or to capture space debris, for example.
Living materials, embedded with microbes, could be more flexible and able to withstand the conditions in space.
-DARPA has previously explored space-based manufacturing that relies on robotic construction or self-assembling materials, and launched the three-year-old NOM4D programme to test the concept.
One team will test its material and manufacturing process in orbit in 2026, while another will launch raw materials on a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission.
The new idea is to engineer biological objects, made from extremophiles, biomaterials and non-organic fibres, that can grow into predefined shapes in space.
These could be used to create poles and walls, for example, and could incorporate electronics.
The agency is currently calling for proposals and will host a workshop in April to debate the idea.
