Curious thing crunchbase

  Researchers have developed a material like concrete that combines extraterrestrial dust and astronauts' sweat, blood, and tears. It is very expensive to transport even a single brick to Mars. An estimated US$2 million is required. In the future, Martian colonists will not be able to bring their building materials with them, but they will be able to obtain resources on-site for construction and shelter.   A protein found in blood plasma plays a crucial role as a binder for simulated dust from the moon, Mars, or both, and can produce emulsions similar to concrete, according to a study conducted at the University of Manchester. According to the article published in Materials Today Bio, the resulting AstroCrete material had compressive strengths of 25 MPa (Megapascals), similar to the 20-32 MPa seen in ordinary concrete. By incorporating urea, which is a biologically excreted waste product, the best performing material was capable of increasing its compressive strength by nearly...