Baking a mixture of saltwater and materials that mimic dust from the moon or Mars at a high temperature produced sturdy bricks that could be used to build human habitats in space
Space 25 May 2022
The dust and loose rocks that make up the moon’s surface could make sturdy bricks
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Bricks made of a mix of saltwater and dust from the moon or Mars can withstand enough pressure to be used in any future extraterrestrial construction. But astronauts planning on making these will need to figure out how to bake them first.
Ranajay Ghosh at the University of Central Florida and his colleagues wanted to know whether the dust and loose rocks on the moon and Mars, known as regolith, could be made into sturdy …