Technology

Meet the new space brick, now with added potato and a pinch of salt

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This slab of StarCrete could build the first Mars bar, as well as other infrastructure
This slab of StarCrete could build the first Mars bar, as well as other infrastructure
The steps involved in creating StarCrete
Comparison of proposed ISRU technologies for the stabilisation of extraterrestrial regolith into solid materials. Ultimate compressive strength (UCS) range of materials plotted against the proportion of material required beyond unprocessed regolith. Purple, yellow and green colours indicate high-, medium- and low-energy processes, respectively

The humble chip is proving its strength as a binding agent for new building materials
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There’s a different kind of space race under way, one that has engineers trying to crack the code on the best way to build on other celestial bodies. Concepts to build on the Moon have included using lunar dust and materials that could generate electricity, while for Mars scientists have explored no-bake bricks and 3D-printed ones using planetary minerals.

Now, from the team that earlier developed AstroCrete, fashioned out of blood, urine and Martian dirt, comes the slightly more palatable StarCrete, made from extraterrestrial dust, potato starch and a dash of salt. And the team says it’s strong enough that it could feasibly build houses on the planet.

When tested, StarCrete had a compressive strength of 72 Megapascals (MPa), more than twice the toughness of ordinary concrete (32 MPa). When made from moon dust, StarCrete hit more than 91 MPa. The team’s previous AstroCrete was around 40 MPa but had the downside of requiring an ongoing source of blood to produce the building materials.

“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,” said Aled Roberts, lead researcher on this project. “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.

“And anyway, astronauts probably don't want to be living in houses made from scabs and urine,” he added.

One of the many challenges of building in space is that it will require cost-effective building materials generated on site; it would be prohibitively expensive to be carting traditional bricks and mortar off this planet.

The researchers found that a sack (55 lb/25 kg) of dehydrated potatoes (chips) contained enough starch to produce nearly half a ton of StarCrete, or 213 bricks. For reference, a three-bedroom house has around 7,500 bricks.

The humble chip is proving its strength as a binding agent for new building materials

The team used simulated Martian soil mixed with the starch, and found that adding a common salt, magnesium chloride, greatly improved the strength of their bricks. This could be sourced from the surface of Mars – or even from the tears of astronauts.

The researchers, who have recently launched the sustainable building materials tech company DeakinBio, now hope to get their biocomposite building blocks out of the lab and find a robust solution to the moisture-sensitive starch binder to also make StarCrete Earth-friendly.

With around 8% of global CO2 emissions stemming from the production of cement and concrete, a strong, green alternative might be a welcome addition to this planet, too.

The study was published in the journal Open Engineering.

Source: The University of Manchester

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5 comments
windykites
These researchers have gone crazy, using blood as a binding agent, and then potato chips! I really think their time could be better spent.
WONKY KLERKY
I really did want to pass on this one, BUT . . ......

Get samples, both full + broken (ie. batts) on the next (several - as they're to go to diverse areas) probe missions.

Explanatory:
Anything that is alive up there will be living
mostly, as carbon concentrates will most likely be depleted / completely on sunshine and raw minerals
+
necessarily, have acute sensing abilities to find what is available.
So, if found ye bricks are found to taste, they'll go for it.

Now there's a consideration Mr NASA - throw in one of your Big Mac pretend butties and they'll positively welcome you !
(Or not, and stick to Chips, Peas & Gravy - PROPER) .
Dan_Linder
I'm interested in the Earth-based solutions it might provide. We humans make a lot of trash that doesn't get recycled for various reasons. I wonder what "garbage" we produce on a yearly basis could be rerouted to produce bricks and pavers instead of filling up a landfill.

In about 10 years I'd like to retire to the south-west United States, having a house built from blocks of up-cycled bricks to contribute to the mass for decreased heating/cooling demands *and* provide this company with a project to further investigate the building-material suitability of their product would be interesting. (Though maybe not if the material ends up being "eaten" by the Earth organisms....)
Unsold
As it's still early, perhaps starting from scratch is in order... or proscribed. Maybe annealing some surface material with a solar mirror would be economical. There's a number of hurdles to address.
3Dh2O
We don’t know how to live on this planet yet and we look to another or others?
We’re in a spin cycle and believe we think clearly! Looking around, it’s a bloody mess