One Beloved ‘Star Trek’ Writer Is Making His Most Brilliant Sci-Fi Concept a Reality

In 1992, Star Trek: The Next Generation aired an unforgettable episode: The tearjerker entitled “The Inner Light.” Considered one of the most thoughtful and tender episodes of Star Trek ever, we see Picard living another’s life in the matter of minutes thanks to the influence of an alien probe. Today, the writer of that episode is pushing a kind of space technology that is far more practical than this memory capture technology.

Morgan Gendel, Hugo-Award winning science fiction writer, is one step closer to making an innovative space habitat a reality. On March 17, 2025, his company, Planetary Shelter, issued a press release that they are gunning for $2 million worth of grants from NASA and the US Air Force. Why? Well, Gendel’s Planetary Shelter has created something called the Habolith, a modular habitat that could be the future of how structures are made on the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Made from lightweight materials, the concept of the Habolith is to use substances already found on a given surface to strengthen the interior of the habitat. Instead of having extremely hefty habitats that have to be lugged to disaster zones, the Habolith bolsters its walls with the “regOLITH,” which is what Planetary Shelter calls “sand-like particulates on planetary surfaces.”

The latest press release spells out the idea:

“The concept, currently in prototyping stage, was inspired by numerous conversations with scientists and aerospace engineers Gendel met at Trek and sci-fi conventions. It utilizes space-age composite fabric membranes in the shape of columns, arches and domes that are filled with sand, earth, or regolith, then compressed to concrete-like stiffness without water or binders. In addition to aerospace and military applications, the company’s goal is to develop durable, affordable ”pop-up” housing to serve as many as possible of the 110 million persons around the globe displaced due to war, environmental disasters and economic hardship.

Habolith’s ability to do this with a reduced reliance on concrete and energy can potentially ameliorate the global emergency housing crisis while helping to lower the housing industry’s contribution to climate change.”

One of the key aspects of the Habolith is a process called “soil jamming,” which is a granular compression of raw materials on a given surface. Hypothetically, this would mean that if you’re headed to Mars, once you arrive, the Habolith compacts Martian soil into usable material, then fills that jammed soil into an “exterior layer of ceramic fiber.”

The result is something that looks a bit like an igloo but can exist in all sorts of different environments. And, as the press release points out, this isn’t just good for habitats on Mars or the Moon, but possibly on Earth, too. In the aftermath of massive catastrophes, the Habolith could present a great and relatively cheap type of temporary shelter for displaced people.

The Planetary Shelter people have done their homework, and the Habolith technology appears to function. The only barrier now is larger-scale funding. Right now, Planetary Shelter isn’t something that has been incorporated into NASA or SpaceX or Blue Origin. It’s still a proof of concept dreamed up by a science fiction writer. That said, the project has support from NASA insiders already, including Dr. Robert Moses, a 33-year NASA veteran who serves as Planetary Shelter’s Chief Technology Officer.

“The ability to build things with minimal materials needed from Earth, as we do with Habolith, is a huge plus for Artemis missions,” he said in a statement from Planetary Shelter.

Artemis aims to take humans around the moon next year and put them back on the Moon in 2027. Could future Moon missions use this innovative yet down-to-earth sci-fi tech? Right now, Planetary Shelter’s specific goals with the Habolith might seem modest, but the dreams here are very, very big.

You can learn more about the Habolith concept right here.