Hey, random questions, but do you have any ideas about a large-scale new biomechanical structure that can be grown in microgravity? Just inquired on behalf of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the program filed a request for information (RFI) this week to seek public input on its plan to develop a “large biomechanical space structure.”
DARPA is often involved in the alleged attempt to turn science fiction into science, and it is interested in exploring ways to “develop” biological structures on an unprecedented scale, or larger lengths that can be used to build infrastructure in space. According to the agency’s RFI, it does sound ambitious to develop a structure that “positions biology as a supplementary component of space assembly infrastructure”!
To get your gears to rotate (I believe the brain gear will count as a biomechanical structure), DARPA does offer some ideas about “structures that can be biomanufactured and assembled”. They include tethers for space elevators, grid networks to capture track debris, large-scale interferometers (tools that use electromagnetic interference to measure waves), for radio science, space station wings and on-demand adhesive patch materials to repair flight damage.
To better understand what DARPA ultimately thinks this might look like, the agency said it is worth imagined a tent as an analogy. “Given the structural material of the tent pole, it is believed that the tent’s growth mechanism is the coverage. The tent can be formed in a specific way through the base pole and performs a given function when embedded with the appropriate electronics.” It will certainly clear everything for you, right?
Now, maybe this whole thing brings you a Lovecraftian vibe, or brings you to some ideas you might see John Carpenter. But it is presumed that DARPA wants something that doesn’t cause endless fear and fear, which shows that we have made a very good material that we can’t control or escape, but they don’t specify this, but let’s assume it is suggestive. To me, it sounds more like someone from Darpa actually got into Megalopolis and wanted to make the bioadaptive building material Adam Driver wanted to use to create a utopia.
We will better understand what DARPA thinks in April, as the agency plans to host a workshop in the Bay Area where research related to its goal of building a large biomechanical space structure will be discussed. If you happen to have some kind of natural growing material that can be molded into a scalable structure, book a flight to San Francisco to show DARPA what you have.
