Space

Astronaut pee could help build 3D-printed moon bases

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Artist's impression of a habitat on the Moon
ESA, Foster and Partners
Artist's impression of a habitat on the Moon
ESA, Foster and Partners
Sample U was created using urea as a plasticizer while N was printed using a more common additive called naphthalene
Shima Pilehvar et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production
An image of the machine used to print the samples
Shima Pilehvar et al./ Journal of Cleaner Production
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Scientists are exploring the potential of using the urine of astronauts to help build some of the first moon bases. By using resources harvested from the Moon, with a little help from astronauts too, it is hoped that lunar settlers will be able to cut down on the prohibitive cost of transporting construction materials from Earth.

Its presence has been woven into the fabric of our society. It has had a transformative effect on our understanding of the cosmos and our place in it, and has been woven into the fabric of our culture, featuring in great works of poetry and art.

Every human being that has ever lived has gazed upon the surface of the Moon. We finally gained the technological prowess (and will) to venture to that surface in 1969 with the Apollo 11 mission, and the following years saw five further crewed missions touch down, but none stayed for so much as a week.

Decades later humanity is finally looking to create semi-permanent habitats on the lunar surface, and classy race that we are, they may just be built with the help of astronaut pee – or more specifically, the urea it contains.

But why? The answer is rooted in the massive cost and logistical effort that is expended getting materials into space. It can costs roughly US$10,000 to transport just 0.45 kg (1 lb) to orbit from the Earth’s surface, and so, as you can imagine, simply shipping all of the building equipment and construction materials to the Moon is out of the question.

Scientists are therefore exploring the potential of using resources already present on the lunar surface to create the habitats.

Numerous studies have already begun to explore whether concrete-like structures could be 3D printed from lunar soil – also known as regolith – using a robotic workforce.

Such a shelter would help protect explorers from the vacuum of space, alongside the high levels of radiation, extreme temperature fluctuations, and micrometeorite strikes that scour the lunar surface.

Now, fresh research undertaken by an international team of scientists has looked into whether another resource – human urine – could be used to make lunar building materials more workable.

The team examined whether the urea present in urine could be used as a plasticizer in a 3D printing mixture suitable for use on the lunar surface. A plasticizer is essentially an additive that can be included in a concrete mixture to soften it, and make it easier to work with before it hardens.

Urea allows hydrogen bonds to break, lowering the viscosity of a mixture to which it is applied.

As part of the study, the researchers 3D printed a series of "mud" tubes from mixtures that included a lunar regolith-like material created by the European Space Agency to which urea and other plasticizers were added.

It was discovered that, as well as being exceptionally unattractive, tubes printed using urea as a plasticizer were able to bear heavy loads, and largely retained their stability. After being heated to 80 °C (176 °F) the tube’s resistance was tested, and was found to improve after enduring eight freeze-thaw cycles similar to temperature variations that would be experienced on the lunar surface.

Sample U was created using urea as a plasticizer while N was printed using a more common additive called naphthalene
Shima Pilehvar et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production

“We have not yet investigated how the urea would be extracted from the urine, as we are assessing whether this would really be necessary, because perhaps its other components could also be used to form the geopolymer concrete,” comments one of the study authors professor Anna-Lena Kjøniksen of the Østfold University College’s Faculty of Engineering in Norway.

“The actual water in the urine could be used for the mixture, together with that which can be obtained on the Moon, or a combination of both.”

The researchers stress that further study is needed to discover the ideal material from which to construct the first lunar habitats.

The paper has been published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

Source: Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas

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5 comments
paul314
The only thing about this that's perhaps not fully thought out is that the water is also potentially a renewable resource. If you use it for concrete, you're going to need some other source for the astronauts to drink.
History Nut
During World War II when Engineers were building airfields in environments that lacked native water sources, the urine of the people working on the project was used to mix the concrete. I doubt if it was as "processed" as well as the tests for potential Moon use but it worked. While the urine would not then be available for recycling to use as consumption resource, it would still be water that did not need to be transported/mined.
John Hagen-Brenner
I've heard that plasterers peeing in their plaster is a practice that goes back, perhaps hundreds of years. I agree with others here that the water component seems like a precious commodity to be recycled and conserved for human use. I wonder if 3D regolith printers could use lasers to fuse regolith into something glassy as it's being laid down, hence not depending on water at all.
christopher
Radiation. "Help Protect" is a nice idea, but that's like saying a sheet of paper "helps protect" you against getting shot. These things need to be deep underground, or else everyone in them is simply going to be cooking in their own juices.
Trylon
@ John Hagen-Brenner, using solar power to sinter moon dust to construct bases has been proposed before.
https://newatlas.com/solar-sinter-3d-printer/19046/
https://newatlas.com/3d-printed-moon-brick-sunlight/49356/
The solar output could be tremendous from a solar furnace on the moon since it has no atmosphere. The Earth's atmosphere blocks at least 70% of the sun's energy from reaching the surface.