Averesch says it's still possible the apparent radioprotective benefits of fungi are due to components of biological life other than melanin. Water, for example, a molecule with a high number of protons in its structure (eight in oxygen and one in each hydrogen), is one of the best ways to protect against the protons that zoom through space, an astrobiological equivalent of fighting fire with fire.

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Even so, the findings have opened intriguing prospects for solving a problem of space-based living. Both China and the US plan to have a base on the Moon in the coming decades, while Texas-based SpaceX aims to have its first mission to Mars blast off by the end of 2026, and land humans there three to five years later. Any people living on these bases will need to be protected from cosmic radiation. But using water or polyethylene plastic as a radioprotective cocoon for these bases might be far too heavy for liftoff.

Metal and glass present a similar problem. Lynn J Rothschild, an astrobiologist at Nasa's Ames Research Centre, has likened transporting these materials into space to build space bases to a turtle carrying its shell everywhere it goes. "[It's] a reliable plan, but with huge energy costs," she said in a 2020 Nasa release.

Her research has led to fungal based furniture and walls that could be grown on the Moon or Mars. Not only would such "myco-architecture" reduce the cost of lift-off, but – if the findings from Dadachova and Averesch prove correct – it could also be used to form a radiation shield, a self-regenerating barrier between the space-faring humans and the storm of galactic cosmic radiation outside.