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If you're just willing to forget about portland cement, you can have concrete on Mars.
You will want a Mars analog, but its formulation will be quite different. The Eco-cement appears, on the surface, to be a good starting point.
Am I the only civil engineer here?
Possibly. My construction experience is on the contracting end, not the engineering.
I think a plastic sealant would be a better choice than water or geotextile. The temperatures can sometimes get (barely) above freezing on Mars, and water is likely to be a rare commodity for a while. Most geotextiles are too porous to form a suitable seal for air containment.
In the past, I have slam-dunked many ideas that involved using concrete on Mars. Lacking significant calcium bearing minerals, I did not think it was practical. However, a recent photo has change my view somewhat.
Compare these two mineral samples:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ … R1_br2.jpg
and
http://ratw.la.asu.edu/RATW069/RATW06937_0.jpg
The laminar structure and flow patterns in the martian sample are sufficiently similar to the terrestrial flowstone sample that I am beginning to believe that we may be able to formulate a mars analog for terrestrial conrete, that would be mined, refined, and produced on site. This mineral would most likely be associated with "significant" volumes of water (in Martian terms), so the entire process would probably occur in the same mine.
Anyone know how to find out what the martian "flowstone" is composed of? I believe that they examined this with the IR Spectrometer.
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