Scientists at the University of Manchester have succeeded in creating a building material that can be used for construction on Mars. This “cosmic concrete,” called StarCrete, is made up of potato starch and salt that, when mixed with dust from Mars, forms a material twice as strong as regular concrete. It’s an efficient and viable recipe, as 55 pounds of potatoes could create half a …
Scientists have long sought out data to support the belief that Venus is volcanically alive. The planet’s unique atmosphere has made this quest challenging, as noxious clouds prevent visibility and the dangerously hot surface means any spacecraft that touches down can survive there for two hours maximum. Many did not expect to find this evidence until 2030 when two cutting edge spacecrafts—NASA’s VERITAS and the …
Drinking in space is typically tricky, as liquids separate into droplets without Earth’s gravitational pull. However, researchers at NASA have devised a way to drink from an open-top cup without gravity or a straw. The Space Cup, part of NASA’s Capillary Flow Experiment, combines cup geometry and fluid dynamics to allow astronauts to sip liquids as if on Earth. Designed by astronaut Don Pettit, physicist …
