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Potatoes are better than human blood for making space bricks, scientists say
- skybrian 2y agoStudy is here: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/eng-2022-0390/html 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 2y agoI was going to say a demented AI wrote the headline.
- HappMacDonald 2y agoIt gave me flashbacks of the Aliens in Satisfactory
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- 10xalphadev 2y agoThat's CoRny...
- adamredwoods 2y 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 2y agoI guess the use of astronauts' blood would make it... Khorne-crete? Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!
- EasyMark 2y agoCorncrete already exists https://research.tudelft.nl/en/publications/corncrete-a-corn-starch-based-building-material https://research.tudelft.nl/en/publications/corncrete-a-corn...
- justinclift 2y agoWow, if some offshoot of that Aztec religion had made it to space, things could indeed be very Warhammer 40k out there. ;)
- anigbrowl 2y ago[flagged]
- idlewords 2y agoThat's gotta be a huge relief for the redshirts on the first few Starships to Mars.
- ordu 2y agoSometimes 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 2y agoI’m still waiting for the inevitable Lunar Basketball Stadium. I’m mostly convinced that alone will fund space exploration for the coming decades.
- miah_ 2y agoA 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_ 2y agoScience 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 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 2y agoYour post reminds me of the song Rät by Penelope Scott
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoI'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.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- personalityson 2y agoI disagree
- caseyy 2y agoIt is notable that human blood concrete was still found to be stronger than ordinary concrete.
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y agoIt 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.
- caseyy 2y agoWow that's dark.
- hggigg 2y agoMark Watney approves.
- Lerc 2y agoThis 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 2y agoWas it Artur C Clarke who suggested melting an asteroid and blowing a huge bubble from it?
- Lerc 2y agoI'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 2y agoAre thy trying for an ignoble prize? Because this is how you get an ignoble prize.
- metalman 2y agothere 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 2y agoWe 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-could-help-make-construction-way-more-sustainable https://www.sciencealert.com/using-biosolids-for-bricks-coul...
- EPWN3D 2y agoWhat a headline.
- metadat 2y agoRelated submission currently on the top of the front page: CoRncrete: A corn starch based building material https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41752020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41752020 - Today (53 comments)
- kylehotchkiss 2y agoThat sounds more productive than just pumping corn into our cars