The prospect of colonizing Mars has captivated people ever since space travel became a plausible human endeavor. The curiosity surrounding Mars has been a long-standing topic of research. Elon Musk, national scientists, and top scientists have all speculated about what it would take for a colony to be established on the planet.
Although the idea of a Martian colony conjures up images of futuristic buildings and technological innovations, the facts are not as grand. Scientists believe that every person on Mars has the ability to build upon it.
Although it may sound alarming, there is solid science supporting the theory. Read on to find out how astronaut blood can be used for concrete to build a future Martian colony.
Transporting earthly building materials to Mars is one of the greatest obstacles to building on Mars. It would require numerous starships, a large crew, and an inordinate amount of money. So researchers started looking at non-Earth materials to build these structures.
It was amazing what they found. According to Space.com, bricks strong enough to build structures could be made by combining Martian soil and a protein found in human blood and a compound found in human sweat, tears or, urine: urea.
Per a statement from Aled Roberts, a researcher at the University of Manchester, ENG., regular building materials wouldn’t cut it on Mars, and the answer could have been inside us all this time.
Aled and fellow researchers at the university took human serum albumin (HSA), a commonly-found protein in blood plasma, and mixed it with simulated Martian soil. HSA served as a binding agent and created a hard substance that could be comparable to traditional concrete.
The researchers also found that adding urea to the HSA and Martian soil mix resulted in a binding solution stronger than concrete, making it perfect for the harsh conditions on Mars. This opens up new possibilities for Mars to build fast.
“If HSA-ERBs were utilized as a mortar and combined with a sandbag-based construction method, our calculations suggest that each crewmember — over the course of a 72-week Mars mission — could produce enough HSA to construct habitat-space to support an additional astronaut,” the scientists wrote in a new study. “This could allow the steady expansion of a nascent Martian colony.”
Because the process involves constant building, it raises ethical questions because it requires collecting blood and other excrement samples every day from people.
“Despite this, we believe that HSA-ERBs could potentially have a significant role in a nascent Martian colony, but will eventually be superseded by versatile bioreactors or other technologies as they mature,” The research team also included this information in their report.