How can engineers design bricks on Mars for future habitats despite the toxic Martian regolith, also called perchlorates? This is what a recent study published in PLOS One hopes to address as an international team of scientists investigated how bacteria can be used to construct strong bricks on Mars despite the presence of perchlorates. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, and future Mars astronauts develop novel methods for designing future Mars habitats.
For the study, the researchers tested perchlorates on Martians bricks built with regolith simulant and bacteria, also called biocementation, to ascertain how the perchlorates affected the integrity of the bricks, and specifically how the bacteria responded to the perchlorates. The goal of the study was to ascertain how perchlorates could influence Martian brick construction methods using bacteria, the latter of which has been explored in past studies using the soil bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii. In the end, the researchers found that despite the perchlorates slowing the growth of the bacteria within the bricks, the process resulted in stronger bricks.
Microscopy image of Sporosarcina pasteurii. Credit: Aloke Lab, Indian Institute of Science
“When the effect of perchlorate on just the bacteria is studied in isolation, it is a stressful factor,” said Swati Dubey, who is a PhD student at the University of Florida and lead author of the study. “But in the bricks, with the right ingredients in the mixture, perchlorate is helping.”
Going forward, the researchers aspire to use this method for developing construction strategies with future human habitats on Mars, along with roads and landing pads. This study comes as NASA and China have ambitious plans to send astronauts to Mars within the next decade or so, and using available resources, known as in situ resource utilization, could make living on Mars a much smoother experience.
What new insight into Mars bricks will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: PLOS One, EurekAlert!