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posted by martyb on Friday April 28 2017, @02:54PM   Printer-friendly
from the under-pressure dept.

http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/27/15436154/mars-soil-simulant-study-building-human-missions

Simulated Mars soil can be packed together into a solid brick-like material — without needing any added ingredients to hold it together. That might mean real Martian soil could be easily used as a tool for building structures like habitats on the Red Planet's surface, which could make human missions to Mars less complicated to pull off.

A group of engineers figured this out by using a high-pressure hammer to mash together material known as Mars soil simulant. It's a collection of rocks from Earth that have the same chemical makeup as the dirt found on Mars, as well as grains that are of a similar shape and size as Martian grains. After working with the material for a while, the engineers found that just adding the right amount of pressure was enough to form the soil into tiny, stiff blocks — stronger than steel-reinforced concrete.

[...] the researchers think there is some ingredient already in the Martian soil that helps it to stick together. They ultimately landed on iron oxide — a chemical compound that gives Martian soil its signature red color. When iron oxide is crushed, it can crack easily, forming fractures with very clean and flat surfaces, according to [Yu] Qiao [a structural engineer at University of California, San Diego, and the lead researcher on a NASA-funded study about this technique]. And when these surfaces are firmly pressed together, they form super strong bonds.

But these bricks aren't a complete solution to construction on Mars — at least not yet. The team only made miniature bricks, so it's possible that larger Martian bricks won't hold up so well. And it's not clear how durable they are either, which is important for a few reasons. Obviously, you don't want your structure to collapse. But less obviously, dust from the soil could break off into the air that astronauts are breathing, and inhaling large enough particles could cause health problems. The dust may also contain a type of salt known as perchlorate, which has been found throughout the Martian surface. Perchlorates can be toxic to human thyroid glands. So more research needs to be done to better understand these risks.

The full report is available: Direct Formation of Structural Components Using a Martian Soil Simulant, Scientific Reports 7, Article number: 1151 (2017) doi:10.1038/s41598-017-01157-w.


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by boris on Friday April 28 2017, @03:38PM (7 children)

    by boris (1706) on Friday April 28 2017, @03:38PM (#501188)

    I would think if we were to use this on mars it would be in combination with an inflatable habitat to provide radiation shielding. I can't imagine they'd be able to make a brick structure air tight.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday April 28 2017, @04:02PM (2 children)

    by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Friday April 28 2017, @04:02PM (#501197) Journal

    I was thinking this too. I wonder if the inside (or outside, I suppose it doesn't matter much) of the completed brick structure could be plastered with some other locally-produced material to create an airtight seal. You can get airtight silicone sealants here on Earth, I wonder what would be involved in manufacturing it offworld using (mainly) local materials. Silicon is pretty common, right? Should be plenty of that on Mars.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday April 28 2017, @05:18PM (1 child)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday April 28 2017, @05:18PM (#501233)

      I was thinking more along the lines of a spray-on polymer layer - if the bricks are robust enough the polymer could be quite thin and still airtight, as well as protective against perchlorate entry to the habitat air.

      Also, if the bricks are strong enough, they might form a structural layer, then loose soil could be piled on top as a radiation and sandstorm barrier.

      --
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      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 30 2017, @02:34AM

        by kaszz (4211) on Sunday April 30 2017, @02:34AM (#501763) Journal

        Perhaps truck bedliner [wikipedia.org] which seems to be made of polyurethane? The problem is however you got to bring all the source chemicals with you. That will limit such option badly.

        True success comes from being efficient in using materials already on the site. Otoh, water and carbon dioxide (CO2) can be combined into plastics perhaps. Given that it mostly consists of long polymers of hydro (H) - carbons (C). The soil also seem to contain all sorts of chemicals that may be useful.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @04:23PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 28 2017, @04:23PM (#501203)

    That's one option, the other is to build structures out of bricks and spray some sort of epoxy liner on the inside for air-tightness and to eliminate any dust hazard. (And maybe spray the outside, too, for weatherproofing).

    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 28 2017, @09:17PM (2 children)

      by kaszz (4211) on Friday April 28 2017, @09:17PM (#501309) Journal

      Epoxy has it's own poisons that will enter the air..
      Bisphenol-A is ONE of them.