How can future astronauts on the Moon repair lunar habitats constructed with space bricks? This is what a recent study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies hopes to address as a team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science investigated how bacteria could be used to repair space bricks that have endured substantial wear-and-tear from the Moon’s environment, including lunar regolith, space radiation, and impacts. This study has the potential to help future astronauts, scientists, and engineers develop natural processes to assist astronauts on long-term space missions.
For previous studies, the researchers used a combination of the soil bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii along with Moon and Mars regolith simulants to create space bricks designed to construct lunar habitats for future astronauts. Additionally, they built these bricks using a traditional method called sintering, which requires immense heat to create strong bricks. However, there’s potentially a drawback to sintering method while on the Moon, which experiences massive temperature variances from the day to night between 121°C (250°F) to -133°C (-207°F).
“Temperature changes can be much more dramatic on the lunar surface, which can, over a period of time, have a significant effect,” said Dr. Koushik Viswanathan, who is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science. “Sintered bricks are brittle. If you have a crack and it grows, the entire structure can quickly fall apart.”
For the new study, the researchers used a combination of the same bacterium with guar gum and lunar regolith simulant to create a bacteria slurry to repair self-inflicted damage to the bricks, with the repaired material occurring after only a few days. Additionally, the bacterium also increased the strength of the bricks after repairing them, with the researchers discovering the repaired bricks could now tolerate temperatures from 100°C (212°F) to 175°C (347°F).
Bricks with self-inflicted damage (left) with bricks repaired using the bacteria-filled slurry (right). (Credit: Amogh Jadhav)
The team aspires to continue their research on the Gaganyaan mission, which is slated to be India’s first crewed spaceflight due for launch sometime in 2026.
How will bacteria help repair space bricks in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Frontiers in Space Technologies, EurekAlert!
