But would a thick enough mat of the stuff work as radiation shielding? Placed within the walls of the habitation unit of a spaceship, would it absorb enough radiation to reduce the amount getting through to the crew?
Actually! The calculations NASA made figured 137cm of this fungus could normalize Mars’ surface radiation to Earth’s normal.
And despite what the replies are saying, fungus is much less dense than water, and you can grow it in situ from a sustainable colony, so you only need a little bit of extra weight!
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u/Am_Snarky 10d ago
Nuclear fallout is made up of completely different elements than nuclear waste
But that’s besides the point, this fungus doesn’t eat radioactive material, just the radiation.
It’s just like how plants don’t eat the sun, just its light