Exploration in space is now growing so much that even non-astronauts can go to space. Many companies are also trying to target space tourism and build settlements there.
Recently scientists from the University of Manchester have succeeded in producing concrete to build buildings in space. This concrete is named as StarCrete and what is interesting is the construction material that uses potatoes and salt.
StarCrete is said to be suitable for use as a material in construction. Apart from potatoes and salt, scientists also use space dust. This dust is said to be his own creation as a simulation of real dust on the planet Mars.
This special concrete is also said to be twice as strong as the traditional one. Normally concrete only has a strength of 32 Megapascal (MPa), but StarCrete has more than twice that strength at 72 MPa. While StarCrete with a mixture of moon dust has a resistance up to almost three times that of 91 MPa.
According to the scientists who produced this concrete, potatoes were chosen because of the starch content that can be a binding material between space dust and the mixture of these materials is similar to ordinary concrete. In addition, one sack of dry potatoes weighing 25 kg is enough to produce 213 StarCrete bricks. A building with three rooms requires an estimate of 7500 units. meaning that around 35 sacks are enough.
For now, StarCrete is still in the testing phase. But the next phase is trying to use it to build buildings. If all goes well, StarCrete has the potential to be used as the main building material on Mars.