- Building lunar and Martian bases from
local materials is a concept almost as old as space exploration itself.
But scientists have refined their ideas of how to use these materials and
work around the challenges of building in low or zero gravity.
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- This week, scientists from or affiliated
with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center discussed their approaches to
building on the Moon or Mars. They presented their research at the Space
'98 conference held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and sponsored by the American
Society of Civil Engineers, NASA, and other organizations.
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- While the probable discovery of water
on the lunar surface has stirred great excitement, lunar soil offers a
broad range of materials for building - and for breathing.
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- An attractive material for construction
on the Moon is aerogel, an exceptional insulator of heat and sound. Aerogel
has been described as frozen smoke since it weighs only slightly more than
air. It's like foam rubber, only the cells are incredibly tiny, and their
walls are equally thin. Sodium silicate (NaSiO2), a common mineral on both
the Moon and Mars, could be used to produce xerogel, a type of low-density
aerogel.
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- Because they incorporate huge quantities
of small pores, xerogels and aerogels greatly reduce the transmission of
heat and sound. Each pore wall acts as a new barrier. Silica-based aerogels
also resist breakage, solar ultraviolet light, and are easily molded into
shapes to fill gaps between pressure walls and outer shells, or to serve
as insulating pads.
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- Martian soil has most of the elements
found in lunar soil (although in different quantities), plus one not readily
found on the Moon: carbon. Large masses of carbon are available at the
Martian poles in sheets of dry ice that could be mined or chemically cracked
using a process developed for recycling crew air. This would yield oxygen
for Mars colonists to breath and carbon for strong, lightweight carbon
composite structures.
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- On a more conventional note, the most
abundant element on the lunar surface is oxygen. It's not breathable but
is locked up in oxides of silicon, iron, calcium, aluminum, magnesium,
and other materials (the actual composition varies with the region). The
metals are useful for buildings and even new spacecraft -- the silicon
can be made into solar cells and windows, and the oxygen freed from the
soil can be breathed or used in rocket propellant.
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