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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — which has been known to fund the development of sci-fi-sounding ideas like flying aircraft carriers or massive streetlights on the Moon — is now seeking public input on its plans to construct massive "bio-mechanical space structures."
As spotted by Gizmodo, the agency filed a Request for Information this week for the eyebrow-raising concept. And while we're still not 100 percent sure exactly what they're going after, it sounds rad as hell.
According to a description of the request, DARPA is looking into the "feasibility" of creating "useful space structures" over 1,600 feet in length that could "disrupt the current state-of-the-art and position biology as a complimentary component of the in-space assembly infrastructure."
Possibilities, according to the document, include "tethers for a space elevator, grid-nets for orbital debris remediation, kilometer-scale interferometers for radio science, new self-assembled wings of a commercial space station for hosting additional payloads, or on-demand production of patch materials to adhere and repair micrometeorite damage."
What DARPA wants to specifically look into are new methods and "technical insights" to create these "large, self-assembled, mechanically stable biological growths in space."
There are plenty of advantages to having larger structures be constructed in space. For one, it's a whole lot cheaper than launching large components and other building materials from the Earth's surface. And beyond welding pieces of metal together, DARPA is peering much further into the future by wanting to harness biological engineering to exploit its "rapid growth properties" — which could one day be done with minimal human intervention.
The agency used a tent as an analogy.
"Given the structural material of the tent poles, biological growth mechanisms are envisioned to be the 'cover' of the tent," the document reads.
In short, it's hard not to see DARPA's vision as a terrifying blob of space gloop — or "filler" — encompassing the necessary "electronics or structural materials." Is the agency trying to leapfrog a near future filled with conventionally built space stations by jumping straight to a hard sci-fi paradigm where space structures are grown through biological means, not built?
It's certainly a pretty out-there concept, as we haven't even reached such a stage on Earth, where we've only started exploring concepts like using mycelium as living building materials.
And how long scientists have to work on the idea remains unclear at best. Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency is set to plow through the Department of Defense, which could bring about mass layoffs amid other budget cuts.
How lifesaving research into HIV/AIDS vaccines and Ebola, which recently landed on DOGE's chopping block, stack up to the importance of DARPA's grand visions of growing structures in space remains to be seen.
In the meantime, DARPA is planning to hold a "sponsored workshop" in April to discuss relevant "future research."
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