Va. Tech Students Create Experimental Bricks For the Moon 137
goran72 writes "Students from the college of engineering at Virginia Tech in the US have made highly durable bricks composed of a lunar rock-like material, which one day might be used to build dwellings in colonies on the moon."
how much variation (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:But... (Score:4, Insightful)
If you're looking to build some sort of permanent colony on the Moon, you're not going to want the people who live there to have to stay in their spacesuits all the time. Therefore, they need some sort of airtight living quarters. This brick seems like a neat idea for equipment storage or something like that, but probably wouldn't be too useful for living areas if it couldn't be made airtight.
Re:But... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Energy required (Score:3, Insightful)
Aluminium is present in the moons crust, but some big nuclear reactors are going to be needed.
First for aluminium production, then for the brick making.
Well they already plan to use nuclear reactors on the moon base, but oh, what's that big yellow ball of gas there right there?
Solar energy, mate.
Re:forget bricks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:moon concrete (Score:1, Insightful)
That's OK, you'll only ever really see such colonies from the inside anyway. With all the harmful radiation out on the lunar surface, you'll want to stay in your lunar warren as much as possible. You might see the outside of the colony briefly on your arrival/ departure, and some jobs will require some outdoor work, but I should think most lunar colonists will stay almost exclusively indoors.
Of course, as long as it is built (or dug) sufficiently large, there's no reason why "indoors" couldn't have trees, fields, plants, lakes, houses, simulated weather...
Re:But... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But... (Score:3, Insightful)
What about the "dome habitat" concept? Is that even feasible outside science fiction?
Re:Followed by two weeks of darkness.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well during the dark period I would suggest not making bricks and run off battery of energy light activities.
Re:But... (Score:3, Insightful)
Bricks are like violence or astraglide.
If it's not working, you're not using enough.