- “The concept is literally blood-curdling,” said researcher Aled Roberts. The bodily fluids of astronauts can be used to build future colonies on Mars through a novel method.
- Transporting even a single brick on the long trip to the Red Planet would be “prohibitively expensive,” said researchers from the University of Manchester in the UK.
- The use of urea and serum albumin from the crew members can offer the best performing material that happens to be “substantially stronger than ordinary concrete.”
Vishwam Sankaran from Independent writes:
“The blood, sweat and tears of astronauts can literally be used to build future colonies in Mars through a novel method, researchers say.
Transporting even a single brick to the Red Planet can be “prohibitively expensive”, as it would cost more than a million pounds, said researchers, including those from the University of Manchester in the UK.
They suggest that a concrete-like material created using extra-terrestrial dust along with astronauts’ bodily fluids be used instead.
In their study, published on Monday in the journal Materials Today Bio, scientists found that a protein from human blood, combined with a compound from urine, sweat or tears, could glue together simulated moon or Mars soil.
They said this produced a material stronger than ordinary concrete, “perfectly suited for construction work in extra-terrestrial environments”.
Citing the need for in-situ utilisation of resources (or ISRU) for constructing astronaut living quarters on Mars, researchers assessed the use of loose rock and Martian soil known as regolith and sparse water deposits…”
See full story here.
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Economic Left 
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