Our Future Home On The Moon May Be Built With Urine And Lunar Soil

NASA, like other space agencies around the world, is obsessed with the idea of bringing humans to the moon, and not just for quick visits or pure research. They want to make it a second home for mankind. However, if we do live there, we will need shelters. And it’s likely that we may make houses by mixing urine with lunar soil.

Building shelters with local resources will help us save costs. A team of international scientists is working with the European Space Agency, they looked into mixing a urine component called urea with luna material to generate some kind of moon concrete.

They 3D-printed cylinders of material created from a combination of urea and moon regolith substitute, according to SINC, the news agency of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology.

Specifically, the early results of this initiative were promising. The 3D-printed tubes of the mixture could support heavy weights and its shape remained almost stable, the news agency reported. It added that the team also heated the tubes to 80 degrees Celsius and tested their resistance, which even rose after 8 freeze-thaw cycles resembling those on the moon.

After publishing the findings last month, the researchers called for further study into the resistance of the material against the moon’s harsh conditions.

Apart from this, scientists have also been looking into other ways of using astronaut waste. For example, researchers at Clemson University wanted to use yeast, CO2 from astronauts’ breath, and urine to make tools. Meanwhile, scientists at Penn State have found a way to generate food from feces and microbes.

It looks like space explorers will be the leading recycling champions.

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