get man to Mars is one thing , but they ’ll also need to be able to go on the surface to bide for any bully length of time .
With that in mind , scientists have been look at ways to utilize Martian soil to createtools and objectson Mars , reducing the number of things future cosmonaut require to take with them . Often that has focalise on using expensive machinery to turn the grease into something utile .
But in a young study by the University of California San Diego and fund by NASA , published inScientific Reportstoday , scientist accidentally find that you’re able to practice the soil in its current human body to create brick , which may be useful for building structures on the Red Planet .
It ’s somewhat cool really . The engineers were working out how to reduce the amount of extra polymer they needed to bend Martian dirt into bricks . But they found that when they shorten the number of polymers ( or ring-binder ) to nothing and apply pressure equivalent to a pounding blow , the soil became rigid and self-colored .
" We noticed that we can lower the binder to very low ( about 1 percentage ) and the material still explicate a strong point , " Yu Qiao , from UC San Diego and the study ’s lead writer , told IFLScience . " That made us clear that there must be something interesting about the Martian grunge simulant itself , not just the append binder . "
The territory before being cut into a brick . David Baillot / Brian J. Chow / Yu Qiao
Of course , they were n’t using factual Martian soil , but simulated soil based on its known makeup . Before apply the press , the soil needed to be confine in a pliable container , in this instance a rubber tube . When collide with , it then produced minuscule chunks about an inch magniloquent that could be cut into brick contour .
The cause ? Well , the investigator mean it might be due to iron oxide , which consecrate Mars its scarlet colouration , acting as a binding agent . The next footprint will be to obtain a way to make the brick bigger , so they can be used for practical determination on the airfoil of Mars .
The current program for NASA is to get human race into orbital cavity around Mars in the other 2030s , perhaps bring down on its moon Phobos . Then , by 2039 , they hope to have man on the ground .
" The people who will go to Mars will be incredibly brave . They will be trailblazer , ” Qiao said in astatement . “ And I would be honour to be their brick maker . ”
