Environmental conservation, especially in an election year, certainly has a network of supporters on terra firma, but how about in outer space?

Meet Nader Khalili. This renowned architect believes we should build space habitats from 95-percent all-natural, non-toxic materials. In February of this year he began building a prototype of a lunar colony near the Mojave Desert in California to demonstrate how it's possible to construct buildings in space using extraterrestrial materials.

"If we don't stop bringing tin cans to the Moon, we'll be polluting it! said Khalili. "We can't conquer nature; we need to work with it. That means we must stop sending [to space] processed materials like steel, titanium and even concrete, and start working with unprocessed natural materials," he said.

Space Architect Nader Khalili stands inside one of his domed structures located near the Mojave Desert.

So what do we do with all that orbital garbage?

Some of the proposed solutions include using laser blasters to pulverize the debris or launching them to the Moon to bypass low Earth orbit. NASA has been working with the United Nations for five years to pass an international law forcing countries and private companies to abide by new regulations on orbital debris. But these solutions are expensive. This, combined with a slow bureaucratic pace, has stalled any progress on solving this problem.

Khalili's vision for the future of manned spaceflight and habitation offers NASA a way to minimize the trash we send to space by stopping space pollution in its tracks -- when you send a man to the Moon, let him build his home from lunar soil.

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In January of 2000, Khalili received permission from the City Council of Hesperia in California to build the first city-approved, simulated lunar colony prototype. These structures are models of living quarters astronauts might use while exploring space.

The construction of the colony began in February and is in its first stage of construction: erecting individual buildings. Khalili's goal is to first build a site for six people and, eventually, for 100. He plans to use both high and low technologies from NASA and various studies to fabricate a full-scale community.

Khalili believes that by using natural elements, people can reduce the amount of wasted materials used to construct buildings on Earth, and in space.

NASA has shown renewed interest in Khalili's experiments this year. Dr. Lewis Peach, former director of NASA's Advanced Project for Human Space Flight, was asked by NASA to visit Khalili at Cal-Earth to consider the lunar prototype and the viability of "space block" structures in space.

"Space blocks" are made from fiber tubes or long sandbags filled with soil and stacked to form arches, domes and vaults. Between the rows, lengths of barbed wire, or even Velcro, are stretched to prevent the bags from shifting in relation to each other.

He believes Khalili's style of architecture is a nice fit for NASA's "faster, better, cheaper" credo. "If you don't have to take all of the materials with you, and you can use habitat for radiation shielding, it will bring costs way down and make long-term habitation more feasible," he said.

Khalili envisions Hesperia as a hub for space technologies. He may turn it into a lunar park, opening part of it up to the public to earn a profit, while keeping other sections as a private facility to train astronauts to build space blocks. Khalili said this project will be ongoing and increase in scope each year.

Iranian-born Khalili returned to his roots for his inspiration as a space architect. He studied to become an architect in California. While launching a successful career building and designing skyscrapers and high-rises, he also started a family. But he soon became disillusioned with his career path.

In 1975, Khalili and his four-year-old son Dastan had a heart-to-heart conversation in a local park. Dastan said that he didn't want to race against the other children in the park, that he would rather race alone. Khalili took his son's words to heart and decided to change the direction of his own life. He left behind the fast-paced, posh world he became accustomed to in California and flew back to Iran to pursue his longtime dream: building safe and affordable homes for the masses.

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In Iran Khalili journeyed across the desert on a motorcycle. He studied the ancient principles of "earth architecture," utilizing the earth beneath your feet to build adobe homes and mud huts.

While traveling, it dawned on Khalili that the oldest standing structures in the Iranian desert were kilns. Hundreds of years ago, these kilns were fired in a process similar to the making of pots and bowls. The kilns managed to withstand the rain, snow and earthquakes while other adobe homes did not. Khalili, with some trusted colleagues, found a way to fire adobe structures from the inside, making them as strong as the kilns.

Khalili supervises construction of a home at his simulated lunar colony in Hesperia, California.

After he returned to the U.S. in 1981, he developed his innovative "Superadobe" homes.

In 1984, when NASA put a call out to architects for unique designs for building lunar colonies, Khalili responded and scientists liked what they heard.

With the help of Khalili's greatest source of inspiration, Rumi, the great Sufi mystic poet who wrote about the "unity" of the four elements (water, wind, earth and fire), he realized that with fire and wind, you can make water from soil. Therefore, why not harness the Sun's energy and use lunar soil to create homes of future lunar explorers?

He presented his theory at the first-ever "Lunar Bases and Space Activities Symposium for the 21st Century." An hour after he gave his proposal, he was invited to Los Alamos in New Mexico as a visiting scientist for more talks and experiments, including a test of his theory at McDonnell Douglas Space Systems.

In 1993, International Building Code officers ran tests that concluded Nader's structures have twice the seismic resistance needed to meet regulations. Khalili was then given the green light to start building based on his revolutionary ideas.

Khalili's greatest hope is that new space technology and architecture will influence people to open their minds to the concept of earthen homes.

"Humans will gain spiritually and environmentally from these natural construction projects and they will build their next frontier and begin to look within themselves for answers again."

In the end, Khalili said, "every individual who goes to space will have complete knowledge of how to transform what exists on site into a lunar or Martian colony."