Bricks for the construction of settlements on Mars! ISRO and IIS produce 'Space Bricks' prototypes.

The ‘space bricks' have yet to be tested on Mars, where the soil is highly hazardous and the atmosphere is primarily made up of carbon dioxide and is 100 times thinner than Earth's.

As Elon Musk and Space X are busy building long-range and heavy rockets to take us to Mars, the basic problem of settlement we would face on arrival has been taken care of.?The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has developed a sustainable method by which solid bricks could be created from Marian soil, with urea and bacteria. This has been developed in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, has collaborated with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop a prototype for bricks made of Martian and lunar soil, using bacteria, nickel chloride, guar gum, and urea.

IISc said in a press release that these ‘space bricks’ could be used in constructing structures that would facilitate human settlements on Mars. It is still yet to be seen if the ‘space bricks’ would hold up on the red planet as the soil is quite toxic and the atmosphere is mostly made up of carbon dioxide and is 100 times thinner than Earth’s.

Associate Professor, Aloke Kumar, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IISc, said that the bacteria seeps deep into the pore space using its own protein to bind the particles together, which decreases porosity and leads to stronger bricks.

Apart from Aloke Kumar, the team consists of Rashmi Dikshit, Nitin Gupta, and Koushik Vishwanathan from the IISc, and Arjun Dey from Isro’s UR Rao Satellite center. All five are part of this mission.

This is some extraordinary work by ISRO and IISc in the field of space.

I am proud to be Indian!

Reference:- https://www.republicworld.com/science/space/isro-iisc-develop-space-bricks-for-habitat-construction-on-moon-and-mars-articleshow.html

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/iisc-isro-experts-develop-space-bricks-for-mars/articleshow/90946328.cms

https://theprint.in/science/isro-iisc-team-develops-prototype-of-bacteria-infused-bricks-for-martian-lunar-soil/925351/

https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/science/bricks-for-building-settlements-on-mars-isro-and-iis-create-prototype-space-bricks/2503691/