Humans will require spaces to live in if they are to be sent to planets like Mars. The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru has collaborate with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop a prototype for Martian and lunar soil bricks to be use in the construction of habitats for human settlements on the Red Planet.
The team demonstrates how “space bricks” for constructing a habitat on Mars could be manufacture using a combination of indigenous Martian soil, bacteria, and urea, a waste chemical remove by mammals through urine.
These “space bricks” may then be use to construct structures on Mars, potentially making human colonisation easier.
To make the “space bricks”, the researchers first create a slurry of simulate Martian soil with guar gum, a product of processed guar beans, urea, nickel chloride, and the bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii.
This is mix, and the slurry can be pour into moulds of any shape.
The bacteria then convert the urea into calcium carbonate crystals over the course of a few days.
These crystals, in combination with biopolymers generate by bacteria, serve as the cement that holds soil particles together.
As per the statement, the researchers had previously tried to build “space bricks” with simulated lunar soil, but they could only produce cylindrical bricks.
With their new Martian method, which involves hardening a slurry mix in a mould, they can make bricks of any shape.
Aloke Kumar, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IISc, and one of the authors of the paper, Said :
“The bacteria seep deep into the pore spaces, using their own proteins to bind the particles together, decreasing porosity and leading to stronger bricks,”.
About the addition of nickel chloride, Aloke Kumar Said :
“In the beginning, our bacteria did not grow at all. Adding nickel chloride was the key step in making the soil hospitable to the bacteria.”
The findings were publish in the journal PLOS One in its 14th April 2022 edition.
The research team intends to look into how Mars’ atmosphere and low gravity could affect the strength of the “space bricks”.
The Martian atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth’s, and it includes more than 95% carbon dioxide, which might have a big impact on bacterial growth.
The researchers built a device call as MARS (Martian AtmospheRe Simulator) that consists of a chamber to simulate the atmospheric conditions found on Mars in the lab.
