ISRO, IISc Bangalore develops space bricks for building igloos on Moon

The Indian Institute of Science (IIS) teamed up with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has developed space bricks for human settlements on the surface of the moon.

Bengaluru: Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in collaboration with ISRO has developed Space bricks for human settlement on the surface of the Moon.

This idea and execution of 'Space Brick' was done by Aloke Kumar who is an assistant professor in mechanical engineering with a team of 10 members including ISRO scientists.

In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Aloke Kumar, an assistant professor from the mechanical engineering department at IISc said that they took up the research on manufacturing bricks using local resources available on Moon which have gained favour for proposed habitat projects on Moon planned by different agencies around the world.

Aloke Kumar said that the bricks have been made from lunar soil in their laboratory. "We have used bacterial growth induced biocementation technology to manufacture space bricks."

Bacteria are very versatile and certain species are capable of bio-mineralisation — a process by which living organisms produce minerals to harden or stiffen existing tissues — which was done to prepare these bricks.

The first set of bricks lacked strength and could be broken with bare hands. “We then used guar gum, a naturally occurring polymer, as an additive. The results were fantastic and the brick exhibited an approximately 10-fold increase in strength,” he said.

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