Martian Concrete
In the 21st century man kind is exploring all possible ways to survive in other planets as we are depleting our natural resources which is very much to be concerned and feared , when it comes from the mouth of Stephen Hawking . While NASA and Space x are contributing in their own ways of transporting humans to planets, which is the foremost step but once landed there shelter is one of the primary essentials to survive which lies on engineers like us.
The idea of transporting construction materials to the mars or other planets would be really expensive so using materials which are available in the planet would be cost effective and less time consuming. This is where the Martian concrete comes into place which is developed by Lin Wan, Roman Wendner , Gianluca Cusatis Northwestern university, comprising mainly of sulphur.
As Sulfur is abundant on the mars in the form of the mineral troilite, (FeS) and could be reduced to obtain Sulfur. Sulphur concrete would be great but engineers have been experimenting with this kind of material for at least a century and initially found that sulphur-based concrete had its fair share of problems. Sulphur Concrete is currently used in non-structural applications, such as pipes and landscaping. But because it is sensitive to heat and fire, it is rarely used for larger projects. Sulphur in vacuum is known to sublimate to a certain extent so the concrete may fail to harden to overcome this Lan had used a simulated Martian soil consisting mainly of silicon dioxide and aluminium oxide with other components such as iron oxide, titanium dioxide created by NASA.
It also doesn't require the ultra high temperatures needed for extraction of cementitious components. Process of sulphur concrete production is based on the sulphur’s properties of changing its viscosity with the change of the temperature in 119–122 degree Celsius sulphur completely turns from the solid into the liquid. And at that temperature it is mixed with Martian soil which forms a mixture, then the mixture is let to cool down at the room temperature which gradually hardens to a concrete. As Mars is relatively cooler it would easy to cool the mixture it would be easy to use this concrete.
Sample Martian concrete Cube
After the team measured the compressive strength, physical properties failure mechanisms and chemically anlaysing the mixture, came out with the mix ratio which was 1:1 ratio of Sulphur and martian soil with the maximum aggregate size of 1mm. Aggregates were to be of smaller size to reduce the formation of voids and to increase the strength. The compressive strength was found to be around 50 Mpa with settling time of 1-2 hours. Adding to all these advantages it is also stated that the Martian Concrete very well suites the environment condition, but as it has low fire resistant it may be slightly pregnable to high temperatures.
Adding normal sand to the Martian concrete will actually reduce the strength of the concrete which is shown.
This clearly shows that the "Mission to MARS" is in the initial stage and has got a long way to go in the future which surely lie in our hands. And who knows? we may read the same article sitting inside the structure made of this concrete in MARS!!
Future scope for this concrete
Alternatives for the sulphur can be analysed.
Using iron oxide, titanium oxide in normal concrete.
Chemical reaction between the concrete and the Martian soil is yet to be fully studied.
To read the paper submitted by the researchers Lin Wan, Roman Wendner, Gianluca Cusatis visit arxiv.org.
To see what Gianluca Cusatis has said about the project visit here.
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