A team of scientists in the UK developed an intriguing material “StarCrete”, which is suitable for construction work in extraterrestrial environments. The material is made of extra-terrestrial dust, potato starch, and a pinch of salt and can be used to construct homes on Mars. According to a team of scientists from the University of Manchester, this material is twice as strong as ordinary concrete.
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The article published in the journal Open Engineering presents an exciting discovery by the research team, who found that by mixing simulated Mars dust with ordinary potato starch, they were able to produce a material with concrete-like properties. This novel substance, “StarCrete” exhibited a compressive strength of 72 Megapascals (MPa), which surpasses that of regular concrete’s 32 MPa by more than twofold. Moreover, when the team tested StarCrete made from simulated moon dust, they found it to be even stronger, boasting a compressive strength of over 91 MPa. This innovative development has significant implications for potential future construction endeavors in space exploration.
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The compressive strength of concrete is measured in megapascals (MPa). It tells inspectors how much pressure the concrete can withstand before cracking or failing.
“Since we will be producing starch as food for astronauts, it made sense to look at that as a binding agent rather than human blood. Also, current building technologies still need many years of development and require considerable energy and additional heavy processing equipment which all adds cost and complexity to a mission. StarCrete doesn’t need any of this and so it simplifies the mission and makes it cheaper and more feasible,” said Dr Aled Roberts, lead researcher for this project.
The same team previously worked on a binding agent derived from astronauts’ blood and urine. The resulting material had a compressive strength of around 40 MPa, which was higher than standard concrete. However, one disadvantage of this material is that it requires blood on a regular basis. In a hostile environment like space, this option seemed less viable than using potato starch.
How to consturct a 3-bedroom house with StarCrete?
According to the team’s calculations, a sack (25kg) of dehydrated potatoes (crisps) contains enough starch to produce nearly half a tonne of StarCrete, which is equivalent to over 213 bricks worth of material. A three-bedroom house requires approximately 7,500 bricks to construct. They also discovered that a common salt, magnesium chloride, obtained from the Martian surface or astronaut tears, significantly improved the strength of StarCrete.
What if StarCrete is used on Earth?
The process of making ordinary concrete mixed with cement requires extremely high firing temperatures and amounts of energy, it can account for about 8% of global CO2 emissions. StarCrete, on the other hand, can be made in a regular oven or microwave at normal ‘home baking’ temperatures, resulting in lower production energy costs. As a result, if used on Earth, StarCrete could provide a more environmentally friendly alternative to traditional concrete.