Homes on Mars could be living

Early Martian habitats may be designed as or grown from living systems (for example engineered microbes, fungi, or plants) that generate air, recycle waste, self‑repair structures, and produce food or materials. That approach reduces launch mass and creates self‑sustaining ecosystems, but also blurs the line between built environment and biosphere and creates new contamination, governance and ethical risks. — If adopted, living habitats would force new rules for planetary protection, export controls on biological tech, property and liability law in space, and public debate about the moral status of engineered ecosystems off Earth.