NASA needs our help building on Mars
NASA needs help exploring Mars, and it鈥檚 asking the public to pitch in. On Wednesday the agency to come up with ideas on how to use native Martian soil and rock to build things like roads, bridges, landing pads, and radiation shields, structures that are necessary to human exploration of the Red Planet.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all about saving weight,鈥� explains Kevin Stark, vice president of , a technology consultancy that鈥檚 helping NASA run the challenge.
To transport materials like steel from Earth to Mars, says NASA, is inefficient. For every 1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of Martian soil used for building these structures, NASA could save $110,000 in fuel and spacecraft costs needed to deliver earthly materials to the Red Planet.
鈥淚f we end up on Mars, we鈥檙e going be mining, digging, and doing a lot there,鈥� says Dr. Stark. 鈥淭here鈥檚 material there. What can we use it for and how can we use it?鈥� he asks.
Though astronomers don鈥檛 know a lot about the entire landscape of the planet, they do know there鈥檚 basalt there, a black, volcanic rock; and regolith, a layer of loose materials like dust soil and rock.
NASA will split $15,000 among three prize winners who come up with the most innovative way to use these as building materials by sintering, melting, or binding them with other agents, according to the challenge announcement. Someone could consider extracting the metals from the regolith, NASA suggests. The winning design principles could also be used for building on the Moon and even on remote islands here on Earth.
Luckily for prize challengers who want to see what Martian basalt and regolith might look like, NASA points out that similar materials actually can be found on Earth, in Black Point, Ariz. and Mauna Kea, Hawaii. This could be helpful, as Stark pointed out, since 鈥渙bviously you can鈥檛 order moon dirt.鈥�
Contenders shouldn鈥檛 be bound by any restrictions in their designs, says Stark, such as the planet鈥檚 thin atmosphere or short supply of carbon.
鈥淭here might be some crazy, out of left field idea that鈥檚 actually the most innovative thing out there,鈥� he says.
This isn鈥檛 the first time from the public to help meet its goal of getting humans to Mars in the 2030s. As Quartz points out, the agency recently gave $200,000 to Clemson University to turn .
