Scientists said Thursday that they have manufactured tiny bricks out of artificial Martian soil, anticipating the day when humans may construct colonies on the Red Planet.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Remarkably, the technique requires only that the red-hued building blocks be compressed in a precise way \u2014 no additives or baking required.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people who will go to Mars will be incredibly brave, they will be pioneers and I would be honoured to be their brick maker,\u201d said Yu Qiao, a professor at the University of California San Diego and lead author of a study in Scientific Reports.<\/p>\n
Structural engineers used a dirt mixture concocted by NASA that mimics Martian soil to make hundreds of 3 millimetre-thick (0.1 inch), disc-shaped bricks.<\/p>\n
By accident, they had discovered that high-pressure compression hardened the artificial soil into rock-solid structures stronger than steel-reinforced concrete.<\/p>\n
Once the stuff of science fiction, human habitation of Mars has captured the collective imagination, and inspired governments and billionaires to explore the feasibility of making the Red Planet a home away from home.<\/p>\n
In March, the US Congress passed a bill \u2014 signed by President Donald Trump \u2014 directing NASA to send a manned mission to Mars in 2033.<\/p>\n
Qiao believes real Martian soil could be compacted layer by layer to form a wall or shaped into larger bricks.<\/p>\n
Previous ideas for how to make construction materials on Mars involved building nuclear plants to fire bricks, or hauling large quantities of polymer \u2014 a kind of glue \u2014 from Earth.<\/p>\n
Professor Qiao\u2019s proposed masonry, on the other hand, would be 100 percent made-in-Mars and require minimal resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the previous methods involved energy intensive heating or pretty significant space transportation from Earth for additives,\u201d the researcher told AFP.<\/p>\n
Iron oxide \u2014 the component that gives Mars its reddish hue \u2014 is thought to be the \u201ccementing agent\u201d that makes the soil so malleable.<\/p>\n
Whether real Martian soil would react in the same way is still uncertain, Qiao concedes \u2014 only on site tests would tell for sure.<\/p>\n
But he hopes his approach will be given a hearing.<\/p>\n
Qiao initially set out to use lunar soil to make cement. When he applied the same technique to Martian-like soil, he discovered its exceptional properties.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover collected samples of Martian dust and sand for the first time in 2012, analysing its composition in a laboratory inside the mobile robot.<\/p>\n
The soil was found to contain a complex chemistry of water, sulphur, and chlorine substances but no traces of organic carbon compounds that could indicate signs of life.\u2014AFP<\/p>\n
Image: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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