Mars habitat.
- Thread starter sferrin
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My issues with it:
1) How do you print the dome? More specifically, the central part, where you're doing less of adding another layer on top, more of adding a layer *inwards*? Unless the liquid hot magma your robots are pooping out is *real* sticky and *real* thick... won't it just drip down?
2) You need *meters* of thickness to build up substantial radiation shielding. That's a lot of molten rock.
Seems to me a way to go would be to ship along a robo-bulldozer that spends its days building up domes of sand. Your magma-poopers then come along and start building on top of the sand. Once they've built up a sufficiently thick dome, the bulldozer starts hauling the sand out from inside. Move the sand to another pile a hundred yards away and start on another shield dome.
1) How do you print the dome? More specifically, the central part, where you're doing less of adding another layer on top, more of adding a layer *inwards*? Unless the liquid hot magma your robots are pooping out is *real* sticky and *real* thick... won't it just drip down?
2) You need *meters* of thickness to build up substantial radiation shielding. That's a lot of molten rock.
Seems to me a way to go would be to ship along a robo-bulldozer that spends its days building up domes of sand. Your magma-poopers then come along and start building on top of the sand. Once they've built up a sufficiently thick dome, the bulldozer starts hauling the sand out from inside. Move the sand to another pile a hundred yards away and start on another shield dome.
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Depends on how viscous the rock is, and if you're actively cooling as you lay it down. It could be done. They can "print" with cement right now and I'd wager rock will cool faster than cement would cure.
If you have nuclear power you would have the power. Solar. . .
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I find the first system my preferred choice. However, I would have to see some good aerodynamic analysis of what the winds in a dust storm will do to the inflated modules in the "open" wind tunnels within which they sit. Also, would these just serve to catch the sand making it impossible to get out of after a months long dust storm?
Using the robots shown? To get the angles needed as the down starts really curving inwards, the robots would seem to have to be like spiders, hanging out over the edge squirting out lava at an angle.
Note that in that video, all of the cement is laid down purely vertically. There are a few places where the cement is laid down over an existing substrate, metal mesh and lintels and the like, but nowhere does it show "sideways" printing. It's always directly atop something solid.
Depends on what you mean by nuclear. If you have a 100 kilowatt reactor, that's great and all, but how many kilos of sand per hour can you melt with the electricity you get out of that?
I kinda wonder if the better approach might be actual concrete. Water is of course at a premium, so perhaps it would be best to manufacture the domes in segments inside sealed chambers which can be kept warm and which can extract the water from the cured slabs. Then use a crane to lift them into place and cement them together (obviously losing *that* water) and then pile dirt on top of that.
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The process would have to resemble continuous casting so it's solid enough to retain it's shape as the "mold" continued down the line. If the mold could wrap around the overhanging edge, with the machine resting on the outside/topside of the previously "printed" wall it should be doable. Obviously you'd use a different mold/applicator for differing amounts of overhang, and there would probably be limits. . . The more I think about it though I'd think finding enough cooling would be the biggest problem. Power is just a matter of making the reactor powerful enough. Cooling though. . .you'd need a lot of surface area, tubing, pumps, etc. to circulate all the water (or whatever you decided to use for coolant).
I'd always thought they'd used sometime more like concrete as well. While melting everything might sound great that's a huge power demand and a lot of sophisticated equipment, enduring extreme conditions, resulting in decreased reliability I'd think.
Also wondered about the possiblity of using an adhesive binder though that would be a lot more expensive.
Don't forget that time is not a constraint (400 days to go and nobody is in the rush) nor temperature (see actual temperature on Mars: https://www.space.com/16907-what-is-the-temperature-of-mars.html )
Rhinocrates
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Article on Martian concrete:
www.technologyreview.com
"The key material in a Martian construction boom will be sulphur, says the Northwestern team. The basic idea is to heat sulphur to about 240 °C so that it becomes liquid, mix it with Martian soil, which acts as an aggregate, and then let it cool. The sulphur solidifies, binding the aggregate and creating concrete. Voila—Martian concrete."
Materials Scientists Make Martian Concrete
If we’re going to colonize Mars, we’ll need buildings to live and work in. So researchers have made cheap, strong concrete out of “Martian” soil.
"The key material in a Martian construction boom will be sulphur, says the Northwestern team. The basic idea is to heat sulphur to about 240 °C so that it becomes liquid, mix it with Martian soil, which acts as an aggregate, and then let it cool. The sulphur solidifies, binding the aggregate and creating concrete. Voila—Martian concrete."
