Potatoes are better than human blood for making space bricks, scientists say

https://www.space.com/space-bricks-potato-starch-mars-moon-dirt

by CharlesW • 2 years ago

44 29 2 years ago

skybrian• 2 years ago

Study is here: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/eng-2022-0390...

Recently, corn starch was employed as a binder for inorganic aggregates such as sand and limestone powder. Termed CoRncrete, these materials displayed impressive compressive strengths as high as 30 MPa; however, moisture sensitivity remained a key weakness for practical Earth-based applications.
Having extremely limited amounts of water, the issue of moisture sensitivity is irrelevant for the Lunar and Martian environments – meaning a CoRncrete-like material could be well-suited for extraterrestrial construction. Furthermore, since starch is the primary constituent of staple foods such as rice, potatoes, and maize (corn), any sustained off-world habitat will likely have the capability to produce starch as food for inhabitants. To mitigate risks such as crop failure or poor yields, a surplus of starch will likely be produced under ordinary conditions: the use of surplus starch as a binder for regolith would therefore avoid the need for additional construction material fabrication equipment and supporting infrastructure.

I think someone from the IgNobel award committee wrote that headline?

drivingmenuts• 2 years ago

I was going to say a demented AI wrote the headline.

HappMacDonald• 2 years ago

It gave me flashbacks of the Aliens in Satisfactory

10xalphadev• 2 years ago

That's CoRny...

adamredwoods• 2 years ago

> The blood and urine of astronauts, after all, are renewable resources, and they're available wherever an astronaut's mission might take them.

I think the blood takes a bit more time to renew? Or are they expecting, uh, a bit more sacrifice...

> "Astronauts probably don't want to be living in houses made from scabs and urine," he said in a statement.

bitwize• 2 years ago

I guess the use of astronauts' blood would make it... Khorne-crete?

Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!

EasyMark• 2 years ago

Corncrete already exists https://research.tudelft.nl/en/publications/corncrete-a-corn...

justinclift• 2 years ago

Wow, if some offshoot of that Aztec religion had made it to space, things could indeed be very Warhammer 40k out there. ;)

idlewords• 2 years ago

That's gotta be a huge relief for the redshirts on the first few Starships to Mars.

ordu• 2 years ago

Sometimes I fantasize about what lunar architecture might look like. Low gravity will enable architects to do pretty wild things. But with this material it may be even wilder.

pennomi• 2 years ago

I’m still waiting for the inevitable Lunar Basketball Stadium. I’m mostly convinced that alone will fund space exploration for the coming decades.

miah_• 2 years ago

A SpaceX representative has done the math and while potatoes make better bricks, human blood is cheaper. So if you'd like to be part of Elons new Mars colony sign up for our mission at your local human grind^H^H^H.. gathering center!

_DeadFred_2• 2 years ago

Science fiction already covered why you don't want 'Libertarian' billionaire types running your mars colony, so of course valley billionaires want to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8lT-Sn-HqE

Just another instance of the Torment Nexus meme and valley sensibilities.

I remember when I admired these people and we didn't have civilizational wide meme's about how evil they are. Sad how things turned out. If only it could have been different. But that would require, you know, basic human compassion when instead they could just build bunkers and distant Hawaiian island escape compounds. And we can't blame them really, it's in their nature. They can't resist taking the wrong lesson from science fiction dystopias and they played Fallout.

a_dabbler• 2 years ago

Your post reminds me of the song Rät by Penelope Scott

_DeadFred_2• 2 years ago

I'm glad Elon's plans aren't totally ruined as the end of the article says the space bricks will in part be made of human tears.

personalityson• 2 years ago

I disagree

caseyy2• 2 years ago

It is notable that human blood concrete was still found to be stronger than ordinary concrete.

hi-v-rocknroll• 2 years ago

It still could be useful in Ukraine to make use of all the blood and meat Russia sends everyday... 1000-1400 casualties every day or ~435k/y. They send specialist drone operators and even FSB and carrier naval units to the front on essentially suicide missions.

caseyy2• 2 years ago

Wow that's dark.

hggigg• 2 years ago

Mark Watney approves.

Lerc2• 2 years ago

This seems to be targeted at other planets, not space-space.

For space use I always wondered about how one could slice up nickel iron asteroids into 50x50x100cm blocks and then start building things out of those. Assuming you can do a clean cut the surface wouldn't oxidize so they should just contact weld back together.

Slicing process left as an exercise to the reader.

geon• 2 years ago

Was it Artur C Clarke who suggested melting an asteroid and blowing a huge bubble from it?

Lerc2• 2 years ago

I've heard of that approach. Not sure if it was Clarke, I always figured you'd need a lot of pressure to do that and it would be tricky to stop it from leaking out holes.

Another idea I had was making a sphere of chicken wire around a small comet. If you melted the comet would the water go out and condense onto the chicken wire eventually making a huge hollow sphere of ice.

more_corn• 2 years ago

Are thy trying for an ignoble prize? Because this is how you get an ignoble prize.

metalman• 2 years ago

there were plans for extrusion spinning out vast orbiting fresnle lenses that could then be used to sinter,whatever/any planetary surface materials and presumably there is a way to automate most of the process of providing material and filling and emptying molds but hey potatoes gota be better than count brickula

slwvx• 2 years ago

We already know how to use feces in making bricks; see the link. I participated in a construction project in Ecuador where cow dung was used in making mortar, so I know it can be done. Sure, feces can be used as fertilizer; both should be explored for use on the Moon and Mars.

https://www.sciencealert.com/using-biosolids-for-bricks-coul...

EPWN3D• 2 years ago

What a headline.

metadat• 2 years ago

Related submission currently on the top of the front page:

CoRncrete: A corn starch based building material https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41752020 - Today (53 comments)

kylehotchkiss• 2 years ago

That sounds more productive than just pumping corn into our cars

Potatoes are better than human blood for making space bricks, scientists say

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