Friday, August 12, 2022
SCIENMAG: Latest Science and Health News
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Scienmag - Latest science news from science magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home SCIENCE NEWS Space & Planetary Science

Affordable housing in outer space: Scientists develop cosmic concrete from space dust and astronaut blood

September 13, 2021
in Space & Planetary Science
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Transporting a single brick to Mars can cost more than a million British pounds – making the future construction of a Martian colony seem prohibitively expensive. Scientists at The University of Manchester have now developed a way to potentially overcome this problem, by creating a concrete-like material made of extra-terrestrial dust along with the blood, sweat and tears of astronauts.

Moon and Mars bio composites

Credit: Dr. Aled Roberts | Research Fellow
Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub
Manchester Institute of Biotechnology

Transporting a single brick to Mars can cost more than a million British pounds – making the future construction of a Martian colony seem prohibitively expensive. Scientists at The University of Manchester have now developed a way to potentially overcome this problem, by creating a concrete-like material made of extra-terrestrial dust along with the blood, sweat and tears of astronauts.

In their study, published today in Materials Today Bio, a protein from human blood, combined with a compound from urine, sweat or tears, could glue together simulated moon or Mars soil to produce a material stronger than ordinary concrete, perfectly suited for construction work in extra-terrestrial environments.

The cost of transporting a single brick to Mars has been estimated at about US$2 million, meaning future Martian colonists cannot bring their building materials with them, but will have to utilise resources they can obtain on-site for construction and shelter. This is known as in-situ resource utilisation (or ISRU) and typically focusses on the use of loose rock and Martian soil (known as regolith) and sparse water deposits. However, there is one overlooked resource that will, by definition, also be available on any crewed mission to the Red Planet: the crew themselves.

In an article published today in the journal Materials Today Bio, scientists demonstrated that a common protein from blood plasma – human serum albumin – could act as a binder for simulated moon or Mars dust to produce a concrete-like material. The resulting novel material, termed AstroCrete, had compressive strengths as high as 25 MPa (Megapascals), about the same as the 20–32 MPa seen in ordinary concrete.

However, the scientists found that incorporating urea – which is a biological waste product that the body produces and excretes through urine, sweat and tears – could further increase the compressive strength by over 300%, with the best performing material having a compressive strength of almost 40 MPa, substantially stronger than ordinary concrete.

Dr Aled Roberts, from The University of Manchester, who worked on the project, said that the new technique holds considerable advantages over many other proposed construction techniques on the moon and Mars.

“Scientists have been trying to develop viable technologies to produce concrete-like materials on the surface of Mars, but we never stopped to think that the answer might be inside us all along”, he said.

The scientists calculate that over 500 kg of high-strength AstroCrete could be produced over the course of a two-year mission on the surface of Mars by a crew of six astronauts. If used as a mortar for sandbags or heat-fused regolith bricks, each crew member could produce enough AstroCrete to expand the habitat to support an additional crew member, doubling the housing available with each successive mission.

Animal blood was historically used as a binder for mortar. “It is exciting that a major challenge of the space age may have found its solution based on inspirations from medieval technology”, said Dr Roberts.

The scientists investigated the underlying bonding mechanism and found that the blood proteins denature, or “curdle”, to form an extended structure with interactions known as “beta sheets” that tightly holds the material together.

“The concept is literally blood-curdling,” Dr Roberts explained.

ENDS



Journal

Materials Today Bio

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtbio.2021.100136

Article Title

Blood, sweat and tears: extraterrestrial regolith biocomposites with in vivo binders

Article Publication Date

10-Sep-2021

Tags: Affordableastronautbloodconcretecosmicdevelopdusthousingouterscientistsspace
Share26Tweet17Share5ShareSendShare
  • Amanda Poholek, Ph.D.

    Reinvigorating ‘lost cause’ exhausted T cells could improve cancer immunotherapy

    86 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 22
  • Experts optimistic about converting coal plants to production of clean geothermal energy

    116 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • U-M study: Local renewable energy employment can fully replace U.S. coal jobs nationwide

    67 shares
    Share 27 Tweet 17
  • Surprise, surprise: Subsurface water on Mars defy expectations

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • Study uncovers what happens inside artery plaque to trigger strokes

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • The presence of certain bacteria in the saliva might indicate post-trauma in veteran soldiers

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
ADVERTISEMENT

About us

We bring you the latest science news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Latest NEWS

Experts optimistic about converting coal plants to production of clean geothermal energy

A role for cell ‘antennae’ in managing dopamine signals in the brain

Reinvigorating ‘lost cause’ exhausted T cells could improve cancer immunotherapy

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 193 other subscribers

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

No Result
View All Result
  • HOME PAGE
  • BIOLOGY
  • CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
  • MEDICINE
    • Cancer
    • Infectious Emerging Diseases
  • SPACE
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • CONTACT US

© 2022 Scienmag- Science Magazine: Latest Science News.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In