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• Researchers from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a way to make bricks from Martian soil with the help of bacteria and urea.
• These ‘space bricks’ can be used to construct building-like structures on Mars that could facilitate human settlement on the red planet.

Details

• The team first made the slurry by mixing Martian soil with guar gum, a bacterium called Sporosarcina pasteurii, urea and nickel chloride (NiCl 2).
• This slurry can be poured into moulds of any desired shape, and over a few days the bacteria convert the urea into crystals of calcium carbonate. These crystals, along with biopolymers secreted by the microbes, act as cement holding the soil particles together.
• This method ensures that the bricks are less porous, which was a problem with other methods used to make Martian bricks.
• The bacteria seep deep into the pore spaces, using their own proteins to bind the particles together, decreasing porosity and leading to stronger bricks.

Other developments

• The team has also developed a lab-on-a-chip device that aims to measure bacterial activity in micro-gravity conditions. The device is being developed keeping in mind our intention to perform experiments in micro-gravity conditions in the near future. With ISRO’s help, the team plans to send such devices into space, so that they can study the effect of low gravity on the bacterial growth.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/isro-iisc-researchers-develop-way-to-make-bricks-from-martian-soil/article65338661.ece

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