Super low tech building material using Martian soil discovered

Pretty neat, not a lot to add. Beyond the obvious: being able to make reinforced concrete strength with a mere 10lb hammer dropping only 1 meter seems to be the ultimate low tech, high capability building material

www.usatoday.com...#

The University of California San Diego team discovered Martian soil can be made into bricks stronger than steel-reinforced concrete by simply using the right amount of pressure. That means no oven to bake the bricks or any other additional ingredients.

"The people who will go to Mars will be incredibly brave," lead author Yu Qiao pronounced. "They will be pioneers. And I would be honored to be their brick maker."

The researchers stumbled onto the discovery, which was published in Thursday's Scientific Reports. Originally, the team sought to reduce the number of polymers needed to create bricks. Instead, they found pressure equal to a 10-pound hammer falling one meter was enough to form a small sample of hardened Mars soil.

I live in a part of the world with extremely red soil. The area near here known as "Rattlesnake Gap" is deep, deep red in color. It'd be even more interesting if creating "martian soil" on Earth made economic sense from an economic standpoint when making building materials.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

That's pretty cool. First, structures on mars using mars own soil, then it will move to earth and people will build multi-million dollar homes with it.

All the first explores to mars are going to die anyway. I read the Martian chronicles, I know what happens.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Next-level sand castles.

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

"Mars! Mars! Good old Mars, here we are!" cried Navigator Lustig.
"Good old Mars!" said Samuel Hinkston, archaeologist.
"Well," said Captain John Black.
The ship landed softly on a lawn of green grass. Outside, upon the lawn, stood an iron deer. Further up the lawn, a tall brown Victorian house sat in the quiet sunlight, all covered with scrolls and rococo, its windows made of blue and pink and yellow and green colored glass' Upon the porch were hairy geraniums and an old swing which was hooked into the porch ceiling and which now swung back and forth, back and forth, in a little breeze.
www.hohschools.org...

Alright, 10 pounds over one meter. So if I were to jump and land on Martian soil, would I make bricks under my feet?

I'm not doubting their findings, I'm just wondering if every time we walk on Martian soil we'd make a red-brick road

a reply to: Ghost147

So if I were to jump and land on Martian soil, would I make bricks under my feet?

No. Acceleration due to gravity is significantly less on Mars.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Beats those mud igloos that other guy was suggesting!

ATS: Martian House Design

A brick wall. All you need is some mortar and a couple masons. I would make a pizza oven!

Prolly need a trowel and a wheelbarrow too. Hope the Unions on Mars OK with us doing this!

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Dang! I guess i missed seeing that black triangle returning to Earth with a pile of that red dirt.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Even all these years later, Dr Sagans words have never rung more true.....

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known - Carl Sagan

YouSir
a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan


Ummm...actually...the smart method...would be to send autonomous craft to the right coordinates...have the bots trundle out and erect the large mobile 3D printer and print the base camp before any humans arrived...The bots could also initiate the aquaponic systems so that fresh veggies and fish species are ready for that first celebratory...boots on the Martian ground...meal...


One of the landers could be a small nuclear reactor for power...land a large quantity of pre-positioned supply landers that then become raw materials for other infrastructure...


Place everything there on the ground first...then set foot...that's the logical scenario...and precisely how I would accomplish the project...IF...I were in charge of course...Save the brick making for the sidewalks...roadways...and ornamental walls brick facing...

Water is only a logistical problem...that capturing Ice comets and breaking them in orbit while strategically sending largish chunks down Mars's gravity well...to impact and be collected would solve...Long term thinking of course...use the existing supplies initially...It worked for earth...it could work for mars...






YouSir

Iron bricks!


If there is that much iron in the soil,
It wouldn't take long to set up an iron mine either.

Maybe a magnetized sifting system to collect the iron to make it useful.
I wonder if there is such a thing?
*ponder*

a reply to: Darkblade71

I've often wondered if the enormous dirt devils we get here aren't somehow effected by air ionization.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

It takes a good amount of power to ionize air. It takes a lot of voltage for a lightning stroke.

Dust devils are caused by convection.

a reply to: YouSir

The real smart thing to do is to suck the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, heat it up with solar or nuclear, turn it supercritical, and turn a turbine.

The electricity can be used for all kinds of things.

You could use the iron in the soil in a battery.

But yeah. Bots. Lots and lots of bots!

a reply to: Phage

One of the more awe inspiring views of West Texas is driving in from Midland towards Stanton and Big Spring, the cotton fields and salf flats/dry lake beds create dust devils, sometimes hundreds as far as you can see, towering hundreds (thousands?) of feet into the air, up past the tops of the cumulus clouds.

Wit the bright green mesquite and almost black bark, blue sky, white puffy clouds, and these enormous dust devils slowing wafting across the deep red cotton fields....its really pretty.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

They grow 'em even bigger on Mars. Bigger even than in Texas.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Pics or it didn't happen!!

LOL!

This is a great thread to stretch your lateral thinking legs!

a reply to: YouSir

I agree. I think a bunch of small, light weight drones and bots should be sent first. Using S.W.A.R.M. technology and autonomous operation they could be busy building the structures people need way before they arrive. It would save lives and cost of starting off with Humans going there then having to construct their own shelter and everything.

The bots could even start the construction of greenhouses and food production and everything else people need before hand.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

here's one i filmed 5 years ago:



On US 87 just south of Tahoka.

That´s a usefull discovery and in the end, it will be about pressing whole walls, not single bricks. The questions is, is it pressuriseable and how prone to cracks and vibrational damage (meteorite impacts)?.

Good find nonetheless!