Beyond space station: Shukla's on-ground research aims for habitats on Mars

Time of India

2 days ago

BENGALURU: As Group Captain
prepares for his historic flight to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard
Axiom-4 Mission
(Ax-4) on June 8, his days in quarantine are being watched closely.
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But what's flown under the radar is that this Indian Air Force pilot turned astronaut has also donned the researcher's hat—co-authoring two scientific papers that aim to push the boundaries of extraterrestrial living.
Both studies, conducted while Shukla was at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, tackle two key challenges of future
Mars missions
: how to build habitats and how to survive the planet's harsh soil chemistry.
In one study accessed by TOI, researchers developed a concept for a modular Martian habitat called BHEEM—short for Bhartiya Extraterrestrial Expandable Modular Habitat. This innovative design proposes stackable geometric modules made from triangles, squares and pentagons that can be launched compactly and expanded onsite to house astronauts.
Aside from Shukla, this study is authored by Mritunjay Baruah, Amogh Ravindra Jadhav, Bimalendu Mahapatra and Aloke Kumar.
Designed with a deep understanding of human-centred needs in space,
BHEEM
offers a reconfigurable living space that prioritises mission efficiency and astronaut comfort.
Each module supports essential tasks—ranging from mission planning and hygiene to exercise and medical care—and is built to withstand the structural stresses of extraterrestrial environments. But building habitats is only half the battle.
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What will they be made of, especially in an environment where every kilogram launched from Earth comes at a premium?
That's where the second study steps in. Alongside researchers Swati Dubey, Nitin Gupta, Rashmi Dixit, Punyasloke Bhadury and Aloke Kumar, Shukla investigated how 'Sporosarcina pasteurii', a biocementation-capable bacterium, can be used to make 'Martian bricks' by consolidating Martian soil simulant with a process known as 'Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP)'.
The twist? They tested how well this microbe performs in the presence of perchlorates—oxidising salts found in actual Martian soil.
The findings — as per a pre-print of the study accessed by TOI — were striking. While perchlorates are typically hostile to life, they induced an unexpected behaviour in the bacteria: the formation of multicellularity-like clusters and the release of protective extracellular matrix.
Even more surprisingly, when combined with a natural adhesive like guar gum, the bacteria helped produce bricks with twice the compressive strength in the presence of perchlorates compared to those without them. 'This suggests that with the right additives, Martian soil could be turned into durable construction material using local resources,' the study has found.
These two studies—one architectural, the other microbial—highlight a systems-level approach to planetary colonisation.
While BHEEM lays the structural blueprint for lunar or
Martian habitats
, the MICP work provides a sustainable method to build those habitats using Mars' own soil.
For Shukla, who is currently in pre-launch quarantine, this dual role as astronaut and scientist underscores the multidisciplinary nature of modern spaceflight. His upcoming mission to the ISS may be a leap for India's human spaceflight programme, but his ground-based research has also been trying to lay the bricks—quite literally—for India's future on Mars.