Astronauts could use their own urine to build moon bases: study – New York Post

Stuck on the moon with no lunar base? Just take a whiz and youre in biz!

An international team of researchers have proposed that NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Chinas space organization build their future structures out of lunar soil and urea yes, pee. Turns out, the bodily fluid is a pretty effective binding agent for concrete.

In the event of global disaster, there has been some discussion of colonization of the moon. However, the monumental effort poses a number of logistical issues, such as how to get building materials to the desolate, dusty wasteland that is the moons surface. Study authors note that transporting just 0.45 kilograms (just under a pound) of cargo to space costs about $10,000.

Urine, however costs $0.

Engineers from Norway, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy, whose findings were recently published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, showed that incorporating urea into a concrete blend could make the mixture more pliant and thus easier to handle under the moons harsh conditions.

To make the geopolymer concrete that will be used on the moon, the idea is to use what is there: regolith (loose material from the moons surface) and the water from the ice present in some areas, said study author Ramn Pamies, a professor at the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (Murcia).

In his statement, he added, with this study we have seen that a waste product, such as the urine of the personnel who occupy the moon bases, could also be used. The two main components of this body fluid are water and urea, a molecule that allows the hydrogen bonds to be broken and, therefore, reduces the viscosities of many aqueous mixtures.

To test out the pee theory, the researchers used a material supplied by the ESA, which is similar to the moon dirt, or regolith, along with urea and various other plasticizers to 3D print mud cylinders for testing under various conditions. They revealed that the samples made with urea supported more weight and kept their shape better compared to the others.

They also held up when exposed to ultra high and low temperatures.

Scientists admitted that there is the problem of how an astronaut would be expected to separate the urea, which is ammonia and carbon dioxide, from the rest of the stuff in pee, including mostly water, expelled nutrients and other compounds.

We have not yet investigated how the urea would be extracted from the urine, said researcher from the Netherlands Anna-Lena Kjniksen.

However, she added, Perhaps its other components could also be used to form the geopolymer concrete. The actual water in the urine could be used for the mixture, together with that which can be obtained on the Moon, or a combination of both.

In other words, no, they did not use their own pee to conduct these experiments. They concluded that more research is needed.

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Astronauts could use their own urine to build moon bases: study - New York Post