Researchers at the University of Delaware are exploring ways to use clay-like topsoil materials from the moon or Mars as the basis for extraterrestrial“If we’re going to live and work on another planet like Mars or the moon, we need to make concrete. But we can’t take bags of concrete with us—we need to use local resources,” Norman Wagner, co-author of theAccording to Wagner, succeeding in the creation of ET cement will require a binder to glue the starting materials together through chemistry.
After seven days, they measured each cube’s size and weight, then crushed it to understand how the material behaves under load. Specifically, they wanted to know if slight differences in chemistry between simulated soils affected the material’s strength. Under vacuum, some of the material samples did form cement, while others were only partially successful. However, overall, the geopolymer cement’s compressive strength decreased under vacuum, compared to geopolymer cubes cured at room temperature and pressure. This raises new considerations, depending on the material’s purpose.
A crushed geopolymer cube made from simulated lunar topsoil, inset shows magnification of lunar topsoil particles which have been activated and reacted to form the geopolymer binder.At high temperatures, about 600 degrees Celsius, the researchers found that every moon-like sample got stronger.