#starcrete — Public Fediverse posts

#SolarEnergy and lunar #regolith are directly available on the #Moon 🌙, meaning that the direct sintering or melting 🌡️ of the regolith is a feasible approach for the manufacturing of objects on the lunar surface. Mobile solutions such as solar ☀️ or laser energy sources can be used to manufacture roads 🛣️ or #LandingPads in-situ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-42008-1

Picture : #Mining robots like the Pilot Excavator will excavate the regolith and take the material to a processing plant https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ISRU_Pilot_Excavator_(KSC-20220728-PH-FMX01_0126).jpeg

#StarCrete #ISRU

#NYT 📆 Oct. 1, 2023 #3Dprinting houses 🏘️ in #DeepSpace 🌌

“Chemistry is the same up there, but physics are different”. #NASA scientists are currently working to perfect a simulated lunar 🌙 #concrete that can stand in for the #moon-made material while they run tests on earth. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/01/realestate/nasa-homes-moon-3-d-printing.html

#Lunar3dPrinting #StarCrete

In its most common #terrestrial 🌍 formulation, #concrete is held together with a binder made from #cement powder and water. But cement is made mostly from limestone—a mineral not present on #Mars 🔴 —and Martian water 💧 is rare and precious. An alternative is concrete bound together by #sulfur, of which #Mars has plenty. Two samples' fracture toughnesses 💪 were even higher than that of cement-based terrestrial concrete https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/Online/41866/Martian-concrete-could-be-tough-stuff

Influence of martian soil simulant on microstructural heterogeneity and mechanical response of martian concretes https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093641322001458?via%3Dihub

Picture : :ccby: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brick_production_in_Songea,_Tanzania.jpg

#ISRU #MarsHabitat #StarCrete

🏗️ #Lunar and #Martian #StarCrete achieved compressive strengths of 91.7 and 72.0 MPa, respectively, which is well within the domain of high-strength concrete (>42 MPa). Made from 🥔 starch + regolith. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/eng-2022-0390/html

#MoonHabitat #MarsHabitat

#NASA / #University of #Nebraska 📆 Jan 9, 2023 #Mars #habitat outfitting can be realized by insitu construction using #cyanobacteria 🦠 and #fungi 🍄 as building agents. Synthetic biology toolkits will be employed to create a synthetic #lichen🌱 system, composed of diazotrophic cyanobacteria and filamentous fungi, to produce abundant #biominerals (calcium carbonate) and #biopolymers, which will glue #Martian #regolith into consolidated building #blocks. These #selfgrowing building blocks can later be assembled into various #structures https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2023/Biomineralization_Enabled_Self_Growing_Building_Blocks/

Picture : https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:071209_082-Stacy-7-12-09.jpg

#StarCrete