3 ms·

In-situ produced basalt fiber reinforced butyl rubber is likely to be one of the major building materials on Mars or the asteroids if humans ever get there.

by superkuh 11mo ago

jabl 11mo ago
I can understand basalt, as that is abundant on Mars. But butyl rubber, from where do you get that? Synthetize from CO2 in the atmosphere might work on Mars but on an Asteroid? But if you go through the route of synthetizing from CO2, why butyl rubber and not some other hydrocarbon?
- adrian_b 11mo ago
  I think that silicone rubber or silicone resins would be much better choices than a butyl rubber for such applications. Not only silicone rubber or resins use much less CO2 and water for fabrication, most of their weight coming from quartz, but they can also be used in a much wider range of temperatures, compatible with that at the surface of Mars (i.e. including very low temperatures and high temperatures). Silicone resins reinforced with glass fiber are a material commonly used where a wide range of operating temperatures is required, so I am pretty sure that they could also be reinforced with basalt fiber.
  - jabl 11mo ago
    I found a brief from a research project that studied blends of silicone and butyl rubber for Mars applications at https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/r.anyszka-2023-tech-showcase.pdf?emrc=07f8a3 https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/r.anyszk... Also a more detailed version https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/459340626/RubberWorld_R.Anyszka.pdf https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/459340626/Rubbe... But this seems to be rubber for gaskets, hoses, tires etc. and not fiber reinforced stuff for construction applications.
kragen 11mo ago
That's interesting! I think of butyl rubber as being fairly expensive stuff compared to building materials—here on Earth, construction sand costs maybe 4¢ per kilogram, while polymers typically cost around 200¢ per kilogram. I'm not sure how much to expect that higher cost to transfer to Martian and asteroid ISRU, because I don't really understand where it comes from. Are you thinking that the composite you're describing would have major advantages, even if it's more expensive?

In-situ produced basalt fiber reinforced butyl rubber is likely to be one of the major building materials on Mars or the asteroids if humans ever get there.

jabl 11mo ago

I can understand basalt, as that is abundant on Mars. But butyl rubber, from where do you get that? Synthetize from CO2 in the atmosphere might work on Mars but on an Asteroid? But if you go through the route of synthetizing from CO2, why butyl rubber and not some other hydrocarbon?

adrian_b 11mo ago
I think that silicone rubber or silicone resins would be much better choices than a butyl rubber for such applications. Not only silicone rubber or resins use much less CO2 and water for fabrication, most of their weight coming from quartz, but they can also be used in a much wider range of temperatures, compatible with that at the surface of Mars (i.e. including very low temperatures and high temperatures). Silicone resins reinforced with glass fiber are a material commonly used where a wide range of operating temperatures is required, so I am pretty sure that they could also be reinforced with basalt fiber.
- jabl 11mo ago
  I found a brief from a research project that studied blends of silicone and butyl rubber for Mars applications at https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/r.anyszka-2023-tech-showcase.pdf?emrc=07f8a3 https://science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/r.anyszk... Also a more detailed version https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/459340626/RubberWorld_R.Anyszka.pdf https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/459340626/Rubbe... But this seems to be rubber for gaskets, hoses, tires etc. and not fiber reinforced stuff for construction applications.

kragen 11mo ago

That's interesting! I think of butyl rubber as being fairly expensive stuff compared to building materials—here on Earth, construction sand costs maybe 4¢ per kilogram, while polymers typically cost around 200¢ per kilogram. I'm not sure how much to expect that higher cost to transfer to Martian and asteroid ISRU, because I don't really understand where it comes from. Are you thinking that the composite you're describing would have major advantages, even if it's more expensive?