"Martian Soil Could Be Used to Build a Colony" Topic

"In all likelihood, a Martian colony won't resemble a silver city rising in stark contrast to the planet's signature red soil. Instead, it will blend right in, especially if a new, intriguing discovery pans out.

Engineers from the University of California in San Diego have created bricks composed of simulated Martian regolith (soil). Amazingly, these basic building blocks turned out to be stronger than steel-reinforced concrete!

Creating the bricks was surprisingly simple. Yu Qiao, a Professor of Structural Engineering, and his team dried out simulated Martian soil, compressed it at high pressures in steel molds, and then subsequently allowed it to dry again. The resulting blocks were incredibly strong and had a permeability similar to dense rocks. This latter feature is important, because it means a structure built with the bricks could be adapted to hold an atmosphere, which is vital on a planet as inhospitable as Mars, where the air is extremely thin and the temperature frequently falls to minus 100 degrees F…"
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Amicalement
Armand

That is good news, but might be easier just to dig caves, just to be sure of protection from radiation exposure.

Mako11,

Don't dig too much. Aren't there already lava tubes like this all around Olympus Mons and the other volcanoes nearby?

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Dan

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand