New Concrete: 2x Stronger Than Current

If you're here to know why we need stronger concrete, I've got one word for you: space.

Experts are getting ready to explore space using technology such as super strong concrete. This material has many uses other than keeping our driveways intact.

The University of Manchester researchers found "StarCrete." They think it can help build on Mars. This is their discovery. They named it "StarCrete."

In a publication called Open Engineering, researchers shared that potato starch was the surprise ingredient that made their "concrete" strong. They mixed it with imitation Mars dust to create a material with a compressive strength of 72 megapascals. When they used moon dust instead, the strength increased to 91 megapascals.

Concrete normally has a compressive strength of 32 MPa.

Aled Roberts, a research fellow, claims that potato starch works best. It's also more tasty than other choices.

We'll make starch as food for astronauts. It's better than using human blood as a binding agent. Also, nobody wants houses made of scabs and urine.

Potato starch is easy to store. This is good.

Building technologies today need a lot of time to develop. They also need more energy and processing equipment which adds to the cost and complexity. StarCrete doesn't require all of this. It makes the mission simpler, cheaper and more possible.

The new material got better because of magnesium chloride. The magnesium chloride came from Mars' surface.

Keep watching out for when it'll come to a home improvement store nearby or when we can start using it on Mars.