Materials

Turning waste into capability.

Materials systems close the loop between all other domains, transforming waste streams and local inputs into structural capability on site.

The problem

Material resupply becomes the bottleneck.

In constrained environments, bulk materials are expensive to move and difficult to store. Waste accumulation and logistics become failure points.

Research focus

Circular construction and in-situ manufacturing.

  • Waste-to-feedstock conversion for organics and polymers
  • Bio-bound and mineral composites using local soil
  • Additive manufacturing for on-demand construction
  • CO₂ mineralization for durable building materials
Inside the loop

Waste in, structure out.

Materials is the loop that closes all the others: every waste stream in the facility converges here and returns as compost, fuel gas, printable feedstock and finished structure. Six processing sub-loops — plus a tracked materials inventory — are orchestrated by Helix's mass-in, mass-out ledger, with quality gates at every hand-off.

Materials loop flow: sorted waste fractions routed through composting, digestion, pyrolysis, fabrication and mineralisation, with cross-loop inputs above and outputs below mass flow power data Dry trash — Crew Crop biomass — Food CO₂ — Air Blackwater solids — Water Power & heat — Energy Wet food waste — Food wet organics food waste dry biomass HM-01 Intake & Sorting Weigh-in · mass logging Sort into five fractions Shred · dry · buffer store HM-02 In-Vessel Composting Thermophilic ≥55 °C, 3+ days Aerated decomposition Cure · screen · quality gate HM-03 Anaerobic Digestion Mesophilic 35–38 °C digestion 20–30 day retention H₂S scrub · CH₄ quality gate HM-04 Pyrolysis & Biochar Feed dried below 20% O₂-free reactor, 450–600 °C Char quench · quality gate HM-05 Polymer & Fabrication Granulate · wash · dry Extrude to ±0.05 mm filament Print · CNC · part QA HM-06 Mineralisation Crush · blend · press blocks CO₂ carbonation curing Strength test · stock entry HELIX LEDGER Circular Construction Tag & track every element Design-for-disassembly Mass-in / mass-out audit Mass audit → Helix Blocks → Habitat Compost → Food Spares → All loops Biochar → Food Syngas → Energy Biogas → Energy

The sort line hands each processor its fraction — wet organics to composting and digestion, dry biomass to pyrolysis, polymer flake to fabrication, mineral fines to block pressing — while Helix reconciles every kilogram in against every kilogram out.

~2,500 kg
of solid waste per year from a crew of four — NASA's own long-duration estimate
0
disposal pathways off Earth — a materials loop replaces disposal with production
~$1M/kg
the going rate for landing mass on the lunar surface — recovered mass never ships
~50%
organic mass reduction through in-vessel composting — nitrogen and phosphorus return to the food loop
System connections

Materials closes the loop on every other loop.

The materials system is the convergence point of all waste streams. Every loop produces byproducts that become feedstock here — and the outputs flow back to strengthen the loops they came from.

  • → Food — compost and biochar returned as soil amendment, closing the nutrient cycle
  • ← Food — inedible biomass, roots, stems, and processing waste as primary feedstock
  • ← Air — concentrated CO₂ stream routed into mineralization reactions
  • ← Water — mineral concentrate from purification stages as inorganic aggregate
  • ← Energy — process heat and power for manufacturing, sintering, and curing
Shipped as standard modules

The materials loop in 20ft boxes.

The reference architecture packages each sub-loop as a standardised 20ft container module on the Heliphere Standard Interface — sized from published equipment specs and containerised precedents.

HM-01 Intake & Sorting — engineering concept view (plan-view general arrangement)
HM-01

Intake & Sorting

Weigh station with load cells, bag opener, trommel screen, manual sort line, NIR resin scanner, twin-shaft shredder, waste-heat dryer and sealed per-fraction storage bays.

~500 kg/day mixed solid waste intake with multi-day buffer storage ~5–8 kW
HM-07 Habitat Printer — engineering concept view (plan-view general arrangement)
HM-07 · Concept

Habitat Printer

Large-format additive construction from what the site already has: crushed local soil or regolith fines from HM-06, biochar from HM-04, recycled polymer from HM-05, and geopolymer or CO₂-cured binders — mixed, pumped and extruded by a folding gantry stowed full-length in the module (four 5.8 m rails, eight column segments) that deploys from the door end. It prints the habitat itself: sleeping quarters, living space, workshops and labs as monolithic shells that the 20 ft modules plug into. Earth-site structures first; sintered-regolith variants for off-Earth.

Print cell ~12 × 6 × 4 m per setup (design target) ~15–25 kW while printing
HM-02 In-Vessel Composting — engineering concept view (plan-view general arrangement)
HM-02

In-Vessel Composting

Rotating-drum in-vessel composter, forced-aeration blowers, exhaust biofilter, curing bay, screening deck and multi-depth temperature, oxygen and moisture instrumentation.

~100–200 kg/day of organics — kitchen and crop-residue streams of a 50–100 person facility ~3–5 kW
HM-03 Anaerobic Digestion — engineering concept view (plan-view general arrangement)
HM-03

Anaerobic Digestion

~20 m³ heated mesophilic CSTR digester, macerator feed system, gas holder, H₂S scrubber, digestate separator and gas composition analysis.

~200–300 kg/day wet organics producing ~25–40 m³ biogas/day ~2–4 kW
HM-04 Pyrolysis & Biochar — engineering concept view (plan-view general arrangement)
HM-04

Pyrolysis & Biochar

Auger-fed slow-pyrolysis reactor (450–600 °C), feed hopper and dryer, syngas combustor, char quench and bagging station, and O₂ safety interlocks.

~250–500 kg/day dry feedstock yielding ~60–150 kg/day biochar ~5–10 kW electrical
HM-05 Polymer & Fabrication — engineering concept view (plan-view general arrangement)
HM-05

Polymer & Fabrication

Plastics granulator, wash and dry line, filament and pellet extruder (~1–2 kg/h), fused-granulate large-format printer, FDM printers, CNC mill and hand-tool workshop.

~10–25 kg/day polymer reprocessing plus on-demand spares fabrication ~10–15 kW peak
HM-06 Mineralisation & Construction — engineering concept view (plan-view general arrangement)
HM-06

Mineralisation & Construction

Jaw crusher and sieve deck, mixer, compressed-earth block press, sealed CO₂ carbonation curing chamber and compression test rig.

~200–400 compressed blocks/day from local soil and rock ~15–25 kW
structurehidden detail (x-ray)envelope / keep-outplan view · 20 ft HC ISO · concept design
Explore the full module standard
Development focus

Manufacturing from waste, on site, on demand.

CO₂ Mineralisation

Carbon captured as structure

Accelerated carbonation processes react captured CO₂ with calcium and magnesium compounds to produce durable carbonates for construction use. The gas that must be removed from the air loop becomes a permanent structural material — sequestered, useful, and requiring no disposal.

Bio-composite Structures

Grown, not manufactured

Mycelium-bound and natural fibre composite systems grow structural materials from organic waste feedstocks. These materials are produced at ambient temperature and pressure with minimal energy input, using the biological waste streams already present in the food and water loops as their primary input.

Additive Manufacturing

On-demand parts from local feedstock

3D printing and robotic fabrication systems produce components directly from recycled and locally processed materials. Additive manufacturing eliminates pre-fabricated parts inventories and logistics windows for replacements — any required component can be produced on site when needed.

Pyrolysis & Thermal Processing

Waste transformed by heat

Pyrolysis systems convert mixed organic waste — plastics, biomass, food residues — into syngas, bio-oil and biochar through oxygen-free thermal decomposition. A single thermal process simultaneously produces energy feedstocks, liquid fuels and stable carbon materials from waste that would otherwise accumulate.

Waste-to-Feedstock Conversion

Every waste stream is a resource

Chemical and mechanical processing routes convert waste streams from all five loops into usable material inputs. Organic waste becomes compost, biochar and fermentation feedstock. Mineral waste becomes aggregate and construction filler. Plastic and polymer waste becomes 3D printing filament and structural composite reinforcement.

Circular Construction

Built to be rebuilt

Construction methodologies and material systems are designed for disassembly and reuse. Structural elements are treated as material inventory rather than permanent fixtures — allowing facilities to be reconfigured, extended or relocated without generating demolition waste or requiring new material imports.

In-situ Resource Utilisation

Local ground as primary material source

Processing routes for converting local soils, rock and regolith into construction materials and mechanical feedstocks are a core focus. In-situ utilisation eliminates the need to transport bulk materials to site — the ground itself becomes the materials loop input, whether that ground is desert, permafrost, seafloor or another planet.

Nutrient Recovery & Cycling

Closing the biological nutrient loop

Systems extract nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from organic waste and wastewater streams and return them as concentrated soil amendments and hydroponic nutrients. Recovering these finite elements within the system boundary eliminates dependence on mined fertiliser inputs — one of agriculture's most critical external dependencies.

See how materials connects to the full system Discuss a project
Beyond Earth

The same loop, off Earth.

On Luna and Mars there is no disposal pathway — every kilogram that enters the habitat is a permanent resident, so the materials loop shifts from waste management to mandatory closure, and the mass-in, mass-out audit becomes a routine safety check rather than a sustainability metric. In-situ resource utilisation inverts the loop from consumer to producer: sintered regolith bricks, basalt fibre and CO₂-carbonated construction materials are designed to be made from the local ground plus captured atmosphere, with Martian regolith requiring perchlorate remediation before any food-adjacent use. NASA's trash-to-gas and Heat Melt Compactor programmes are the direct heritage line for the pyrolysis and compaction sub-loops, and reduced gravity changes reactor fluid dynamics enough that composter aeration, digester mixing and char quenching are all modelled for 0.17g and 0.38g recalibration in Helix.