Jin's NASA-funded proposal considers growing bricks on Mars to sustain human life there

The world's brightest minds have long looked to the sky and wondered if it would be possible to sustain human life on another planet, such as Mars.

If it is possible, Congrui Grace Jin, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, believes the process for creating self-healing concrete that is on Earth could inspire a process for growing bricks that would be built into structures for humans to populate the red planet.

Jin's proposal – "Biomineralization-Enabled Self-Growing Building Blocks for Habitat Outfitting on Mars" – is one of 14 selected to receive Phase 1 funding by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.

Phase 1 provides recipients with a $175,000 award to conduct a nine-month study that could lead to design, production and testing of ideas.

Later this year, in Phase 2, some of these 14 projects will receive a $600,000, two-year extension. Sometime around 2026, Phase 3 will award $2 million to one project for a final two years of study.

Some proposals sound like science fiction, but – if successful – could possibly help shape the future of space missions and exploration. Jin's idea has gained international attention, ranging from an article on CNN.com to coverage by local media, such as KETV. 

While it sounds a bit fantastical, the concept of concrete that can repair itself has been developed in the past 20 years or so.

Jin's research group uses fungi and bacteria to create biominerals and biopolymers that will fill cracks that occur. The biominerals induce their own growth as the organisms secrete extracellular polymeric substances that adhere to regolith and biopolymers, grow and expand, thereby "healing" the concrete.

The idea of combining these Earthen organisms and raw materials from another planet to manufacture (or "grow") bricks, however, is brand new and presents new challenges.

The process, Jin said, would require finding the right mixture of cyanobacteria and filamentous fungi that, will secrete calcium carbonate (limestone) crystals and, when combined with Martian soil particle regolith, would grow in a mold and eventually harden into the shape desired.

Because of Mars' natural hazards, such as extreme cold (temperatures average -81 degrees Fahrenheit) and high levels of radiation (about 40-50 times the average on Earth), Jin said, "growing" bricks there would require a next-level change in the procedures.

"The bacteria or fungi wouldn't survive in that atmosphere. We'd need to build a bioreactor where we could grow the fungi and the bacteria and then grow the bricks," Jin said. "It's a very new idea. The unpredictable nature of it is very interesting."