Okay, say we make it back to the moon and decide to build a permanent colony. Going to need structures, right. But transporting stuff to the moon is expensive. Why not just use moon stuff to build structures? Well, now we know we can, and thanks to scientists from four countries and the European Space Agency, there’s a solution. All we need is thirsty astronauts and enough for them to drink. Yep. Who’da thunk it?
So, the story is that Shima Pilehvar and others figured out that astronauts could use urine to make cement.* Yes, like you, I’m wondering, “Who thought first that this was a problem and second that pee was the solution?” Anyway, Shima and friends, probably after drinking too much beer, decided that sending urine down the toilet was probably wasteful. I’m surmising that they took buckets to the pub to have something to carry back to the lab. Or, maybe they just drank beer in the lab.
In their abstract, the authors write, “We have…explored the possibility of utilizing urea as a chemical admixture for lunar geopolymers [geo? Doesn’t that mean “earth”? How about moonopolymers?]…[as a superplasticizer]” Their argument, beyond the chemistry and the material involved, lies in the estimated $10,000 per pound to get stuff just into orbit around Earth, forget the expense of getting it to the moon.
Having once had a job assisting stone masons, I recall having to use abundant water to mix the mortar and also concrete for the masons. No matter how much beer I might drink, I don’t think I could produce that quantity. I don’t think a small number of astronauts could produce that much urine. But if they could, their urine production, and thus their urea production, would require transporting the beer to the moon. Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I’m totally opposed to astronauts bouncing around drunk in diminished gravity. No doubt, as societies move to other worlds, they’ll carry their rules with them, and among those will be rules against bouncing under the influence. But, if it costs $10,000 to get a pound of stuff into Earth orbit, wouldn’t getting all that beer to the moon offset the savings of not transporting construction materials? Even if the beer is purchased at happy-hour or beer-distributor prices, it still weighs about eight pounds per gallon. Eight pounds times $10,000 is $80,000 in transportation costs. And, how much cement can astronauts make with each gallon? Also, how much time do they want to spend gathering moon-surface polymers to mix with urea? Will it be dangerous to mine under the influence of beer, even moon-surface mine? And, big question: Are there suits that allow both male and female astronauts to pee on moon dust?
Gosh, then there’s the problem of where to pee. The moon has no rest stops and no trees. Making cement with urea is going to be a very public process. And how many astronauts will have to devote their time to peeing and separating urea? Will there be work shifts? And what if an astronaut prefers scotch or, moon-forbid (didn’t want to say “heaven forbid” though from my earthbound perspective, the moon is in the “heavens”), the astronaut is a celiac? Would NASA or the ESA send gluten-free beer? Isn’t beer just liquid bread?
The quantity problem is really THE problem. The report by Pilehvar and friends contains pictures of little cement structures with weights to demonstrate their capacity to resist deformation under stresses (like their own weight and freeze-thaw cycles). Unless the ESA intends to use the pee-cement to build little houses for moon-hamsters, no human astronaut is going to construct on the moon a large enough place of refuge to shield a human from all that solar radiation, cosmic rays, and micrometeorites that can’t burn up in a non-existing atmosphere. In short, who wants to live in the primitive conditions of a cement yurt in an age of technology so advanced that people can actually get to the moon? Kind of ironic isn’t it? We have on Earth a protective atmosphere, abundant limestone and diatomaceous earth from which to make cement. We can build wooden or steel or cement or stone houses, all with as much elaboration as we wish or can afford, and none of it costing $10,000 per pound unless we decide to construct houses from rare or precious metals. We have air to breathe, places where weather is rather pleasant, where no one has to wear a spacesuit or, indeed, anything. But here we are, discussing how to put humans in the harshest of conditions and asking them to pee just to provide what is easily made on Earth at relatively low cost and effort. Can anyone say, “I ordered ten yards of cement today for my new sidewalk”?
Humans. Two to three hundred thousand years of evolution to get to an age of technology only to fly to a place where nothing of human existence, save a few pieces of junk left from a half dozen moon landings, is available. And for what? To go to planets or moons farther away? Planets and moons that are even harsher environments than the moon? Even more primitive environments? Trying to remember. What was one of those basic needs in Maslow’s hierarchy? Oh! Yeah. Safety, aka shelter.*** I think I would rather live in a cave on Earth than in a pee-hut on the moon.
Humans. Spent 200 to 300 millennia discovering how to make life easy, and they turn around and head toward the past. Go figure.
*Pilehvar, Shima, et al. Utilization of urea as an accessible superplasticizer on the moon for lunar geopolymer mixtures. Journal of Cleaner Production. Volume 247, 20 Feb 2020, 119177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119177 Online at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619340478?via%3Dihub#! Accessed on May 10, 2020.
***Letzler, Rafi. These lava tubes could be the safest place for explorers to live on Mars. 11 May 2020; Online athttps://www.livescience.com/radiation-mars-safe-lava-tubes.html?utm_source=Selligent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9160&utm_content=LVS_newsletter+&utm_term=2816625&m_i=3GhBzUpX75iIVSO3Gxk0xQ0U2GCWWAOYehhmDTOb6Lhnk75OGtHf9HzoBuvGnoaXY7hd16E75SrYIVXBn36DQ_mUWVq1xhEfvotI2jh33P . Accessed May 12, 2020. This is an update reference for this blog. So, we want to go to Mars, and maybe going there could produce some benefit for humans over the next centuries, but not for those humans who go to Mars. they will be living in danger, and might have to revert to what our very ancient ancestors did for shelter, that is, live in caves, or, on Mars, lava tubes. You can imagine the lifestyle (or you can watch an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie). I love the sentence by Letzler in this article that reads, "Every part of Mars could kill you." What a great travel ad. Makes me want to sign up for the trip. How about you?
Sure, Earth has its dangers, but at least it has oxygen, a protective atmosphere, and food. And if I want to live a more primitive life, I can always find a lava tube in New Mexico or Hawaii for a home.
So, the story is that Shima Pilehvar and others figured out that astronauts could use urine to make cement.* Yes, like you, I’m wondering, “Who thought first that this was a problem and second that pee was the solution?” Anyway, Shima and friends, probably after drinking too much beer, decided that sending urine down the toilet was probably wasteful. I’m surmising that they took buckets to the pub to have something to carry back to the lab. Or, maybe they just drank beer in the lab.
In their abstract, the authors write, “We have…explored the possibility of utilizing urea as a chemical admixture for lunar geopolymers [geo? Doesn’t that mean “earth”? How about moonopolymers?]…[as a superplasticizer]” Their argument, beyond the chemistry and the material involved, lies in the estimated $10,000 per pound to get stuff just into orbit around Earth, forget the expense of getting it to the moon.
Having once had a job assisting stone masons, I recall having to use abundant water to mix the mortar and also concrete for the masons. No matter how much beer I might drink, I don’t think I could produce that quantity. I don’t think a small number of astronauts could produce that much urine. But if they could, their urine production, and thus their urea production, would require transporting the beer to the moon. Now, don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I’m totally opposed to astronauts bouncing around drunk in diminished gravity. No doubt, as societies move to other worlds, they’ll carry their rules with them, and among those will be rules against bouncing under the influence. But, if it costs $10,000 to get a pound of stuff into Earth orbit, wouldn’t getting all that beer to the moon offset the savings of not transporting construction materials? Even if the beer is purchased at happy-hour or beer-distributor prices, it still weighs about eight pounds per gallon. Eight pounds times $10,000 is $80,000 in transportation costs. And, how much cement can astronauts make with each gallon? Also, how much time do they want to spend gathering moon-surface polymers to mix with urea? Will it be dangerous to mine under the influence of beer, even moon-surface mine? And, big question: Are there suits that allow both male and female astronauts to pee on moon dust?
Gosh, then there’s the problem of where to pee. The moon has no rest stops and no trees. Making cement with urea is going to be a very public process. And how many astronauts will have to devote their time to peeing and separating urea? Will there be work shifts? And what if an astronaut prefers scotch or, moon-forbid (didn’t want to say “heaven forbid” though from my earthbound perspective, the moon is in the “heavens”), the astronaut is a celiac? Would NASA or the ESA send gluten-free beer? Isn’t beer just liquid bread?
The quantity problem is really THE problem. The report by Pilehvar and friends contains pictures of little cement structures with weights to demonstrate their capacity to resist deformation under stresses (like their own weight and freeze-thaw cycles). Unless the ESA intends to use the pee-cement to build little houses for moon-hamsters, no human astronaut is going to construct on the moon a large enough place of refuge to shield a human from all that solar radiation, cosmic rays, and micrometeorites that can’t burn up in a non-existing atmosphere. In short, who wants to live in the primitive conditions of a cement yurt in an age of technology so advanced that people can actually get to the moon? Kind of ironic isn’t it? We have on Earth a protective atmosphere, abundant limestone and diatomaceous earth from which to make cement. We can build wooden or steel or cement or stone houses, all with as much elaboration as we wish or can afford, and none of it costing $10,000 per pound unless we decide to construct houses from rare or precious metals. We have air to breathe, places where weather is rather pleasant, where no one has to wear a spacesuit or, indeed, anything. But here we are, discussing how to put humans in the harshest of conditions and asking them to pee just to provide what is easily made on Earth at relatively low cost and effort. Can anyone say, “I ordered ten yards of cement today for my new sidewalk”?
Humans. Two to three hundred thousand years of evolution to get to an age of technology only to fly to a place where nothing of human existence, save a few pieces of junk left from a half dozen moon landings, is available. And for what? To go to planets or moons farther away? Planets and moons that are even harsher environments than the moon? Even more primitive environments? Trying to remember. What was one of those basic needs in Maslow’s hierarchy? Oh! Yeah. Safety, aka shelter.*** I think I would rather live in a cave on Earth than in a pee-hut on the moon.
Humans. Spent 200 to 300 millennia discovering how to make life easy, and they turn around and head toward the past. Go figure.
*Pilehvar, Shima, et al. Utilization of urea as an accessible superplasticizer on the moon for lunar geopolymer mixtures. Journal of Cleaner Production. Volume 247, 20 Feb 2020, 119177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119177 Online at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619340478?via%3Dihub#! Accessed on May 10, 2020.
***Letzler, Rafi. These lava tubes could be the safest place for explorers to live on Mars. 11 May 2020; Online athttps://www.livescience.com/radiation-mars-safe-lava-tubes.html?utm_source=Selligent&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=9160&utm_content=LVS_newsletter+&utm_term=2816625&m_i=3GhBzUpX75iIVSO3Gxk0xQ0U2GCWWAOYehhmDTOb6Lhnk75OGtHf9HzoBuvGnoaXY7hd16E75SrYIVXBn36DQ_mUWVq1xhEfvotI2jh33P . Accessed May 12, 2020. This is an update reference for this blog. So, we want to go to Mars, and maybe going there could produce some benefit for humans over the next centuries, but not for those humans who go to Mars. they will be living in danger, and might have to revert to what our very ancient ancestors did for shelter, that is, live in caves, or, on Mars, lava tubes. You can imagine the lifestyle (or you can watch an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie). I love the sentence by Letzler in this article that reads, "Every part of Mars could kill you." What a great travel ad. Makes me want to sign up for the trip. How about you?
Sure, Earth has its dangers, but at least it has oxygen, a protective atmosphere, and food. And if I want to live a more primitive life, I can always find a lava tube in New Mexico or Hawaii for a home.
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