Scientists have discovered a new type of building material, called ‘StarCrete’, which is made from dust from places outside Earth, potato starch and a bit of salt. It can be used to make homes on Mars!
Constructing things in space right now is really expensive and hard to do. In the future, astronauts will need materials that are simple and easy to find. StarCrete could be a good solution! Scientists mixed up stuff like simulated dirt from Mars with potato starch and salt to come up with the material. It’s two times stronger than regular concrete and it’s great for building on other planets.
A research team at the University of Manchester has discovered that ordinary potato starch can be used to create a material similar to concrete when it is mixed with Mars or Moon dust. This material, called “StarCrete,” had a strength rating of 72 MegaPascals (MPa) for Mars and more than 91 MPa for Moon–which is way stronger than regular concrete which only has a strength rating of 32 MPa.
Before, scientists tried using astronauts’ blood and urine in order to make a strong material. But while it made something around 40 times stronger than concrete normally is, they needed blood often which was not a great option when in space. So instead of that, they used potato starch which works just as well but doesn’t require as much effort or resources.
We wanted to make food for astronauts, so we decided to use starch as a glue instead of blood. It also makes it way easier and cheaper to do the mission because with normal building technologies, it takes a lot of time, energy, and expensive machinery to do it. But unlike those building technologies, StarCrete doesn’t need any of that stuff.
“Astronauts probably don’t want to live in houses made with scabs and pee!” according to Dr. Aled Roberts, who is in charge of this project at the Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub.
The team did some calculations and found out that 25kg (or 55lbs) of dehydrated potatoes can produce enough starch to make almost half a tonne of something called StarCrete. That’s the same amount used to create 213 bricks! It would take 7,500 bricks to build a 3-bedroom house, so we can see how much StarCrete that is! They also discovered that adding a common salt called magnesium chloride into StarCrete makes it stronger. Magnesium chloride is something that can be found on Mars or in astronaut tears!
The next step of this project is to take StarCrete from the lab into real-world use. Dr. Roberts and his team have made a new company called DeakinBio which is looking for ways to make StarCrete work in everyday settings.
StarCrete could be a better alternative to traditional concrete if used on Earth. Right now, cement and concrete are making the environment worse since they require alot of energy and heat when made. StarCrete is different because it can be created in a regular oven or microwave which requires less energy for production.
The researchers Aled D. Roberts and Nigel S. Scrutton wrote a paper called “StarCrete: A starch-based biocomposite for off-world construction” on 13 March 2023 about a program that teaches people with lymphedema how to take care of themselves in the Upper West Region of Ghana. It also talks about treatments for meibomian gland dysfunction.
