What To Know
- In the UK, researchers are working on a new material for future habitats to be built on the surface of Mars and the Moon.
- Indeed, the sustainable presence of human beings on the Moon and Mars necessarily involves the construction of robust, sustainable habitats and above all offering a protection against cosmic radiation.
- “The advantage of using potato starch is that we know we’re going to produce some form of starch to feed the astronauts anyway, so we can produce more of it and use it for construction.
In the UK, researchers are working on a new material for future habitats to be built on the surface of Mars and the Moon. This material incorporates potato starch which is commonly found in many food applications, but also technical ones.
A new construction material
Potato starch is a substance extracted from potato tubers. It is very common in the food industryespecially in the preparation of chips and noodles. However, it also has other applications in the paper industry, the pharmaceutical industry and even in cosmetics. In a statement published in 2023, a team from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) presented their project called StarCrete. They mention a new building material based on potato starch used as a binder. This material could help in the construction of future habitats, particularly on the Moon and Mars. This innovation aims to address several issues. Indeed, the sustainable presence of human beings on the Moon and Mars necessarily involves the construction of robust, sustainable habitats and above all offering a protection against cosmic radiation. Furthermore, the use of local resources is obviously welcome, as is the development of simple, low-energy construction processes.
Twice as strong as concrete
In their experiments, British scientists used potato starch, regolith and a “pinch of salt” which is none other than magnesium chloride. However, the latter is available on Mars and incidentally in the tears of astronauts. According to the researchers, StarCrete is a biocomposite material highly resistant to compressiontwice as much as ordinary concrete. Featured in the journal Open Engineeringthe material would be perfectly suited for construction work in extraterrestrial environments.
Credits: Aled D. Roberts and Nigel S. Scrutton. Open Engineering, vol. 13, no. 1, 2023, pp. 20220390.
“The advantage of using potato starch is that we know we’re going to produce some form of starch to feed the astronauts anyway, so we can produce more of it and use it for construction.”said Aled D. Roberts, one of the researchers behind the study. A 55-pound bag of chips is estimated to contain enough potato starch to make about 500 kg of StarCreteor more than 210 bricks of this material. As far as production is concerned, any problems could be offset by the shipment of significant quantities of potato starch from Earth.
