2000-08-16 | SCIENCE, MISSIONS, TECHNOLOGIES, EDUCATION
Making Mars bricks
Sending human to Mars presents significant obstacles. Astronauts might have to remain on Mars for many months, waiting for Mars and the Earth to align themselves for the return trip home. During that time, astronauts would need to be shielded from intense radiation from the Sun. Launching large amounts of such shielding could be prohibitively expensive.
Now, according to a space.com news article, an undergraduate student at the College of William and Mary may have an answer.
Ryan McGlothlin is making radiation-resistant bricks using soil mixed with small amounts of polyethylene plastic. The dirt, from a quarry in Minnesota, resembles the soil of Mars. Astronauts could build shielded structures without lugging all of the raw materials to Mars.
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from space.com, Aug 16, 2000
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