Did you know that transporting a single brick to Mars can cost more than a million pounds?
This makes the future construction of a Martian colony seem so expensive that it will likely never be pulled off – but now, scientists at The University of Manchesterhave developed a way to potentially overcome this problem.
By creating a concrete-like material that’s made of extra-terrestrial dust along with the blood, sweat and tears of astronauts.
As mad as it sounds, it’s absolutely true.
In the Manchester-based scientists’ study – which was published today in Materials Today Bio – it’s revealed that a protein from human blood, combined with a compound from urine, sweat or tears, could glue together simulated moon or Mars soil to produce a material stronger than ordinary concrete – which is perfectly suited for construction work in extra-terrestrial environments.
So how does it actually work then? Well, to get a little more into the complexity of it all, scientists have basically demonstrated that a common protein from blood plasma, known as human serum albumin, could act as a binder for simulated moon or Mars dust to produce a concrete-like material.
The resulting material – which has compressive strengths as high as 25 MPa – has been aptly-named AstroCrete.
Scientists have created a concrete-like material that’s made of extra-terrestrial dust with the blood, sweat and tears of astronauts / Credit: The University of Manchester
However, the scientists found that by incorporating urea – which is a biological waste product that the body produces and excretes through urine, sweat and tears – this could further increase the compressive strength of the material by over 300%.
This means that the best-performing material could eventually have a compressive strength of almost 40 MPa – substantially stronger than ordinary concrete.
Dr Aled Roberts, from The University of Manchester, who worked on the project, said that the new technique holds considerable advantages over many other proposed construction techniques on the moon and Mars, adding that: “Scientists have been trying to develop viable technologies to produce concrete-like materials on the surface of Mars, but we never stopped to think that the answer might be inside us all along.”
The scientists have calculated that over 500 kg of high-strength AstroCrete could be produced over the course of a two-year mission on the surface of Mars by a crew of six astronauts.
If used as a mortar for sandbags or heat-fused regolith bricks, each crew member could produce enough AstroCrete to expand the habitat to support an additional crew member, doubling the housing available with each successive mission.
The material – named AstroCrete – was developed at The University of Manchester / Credit: The University of Manchester
“It is exciting that a major challenge of the space age may have found its solution based on inspirations from medieval technology,” Dr Roberts continued.
The scientists investigated the underlying bonding mechanism and found that the blood proteins denature, or “curdle”, to form an extended structure with interactions known as “beta sheets” that tightly holds the material together.
“The concept is literally blood-curdling,”Dr Roberts explained.
Featured Image – The University of Manchester
News
Authorities prepare to ‘turn the tide’ on Greater Manchester’s housing crisis
Emily Sergeant
Greater Manchester is preparing to ‘turn the tide’ on its housing crisis by building new homes and protecting renters.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has set out its comprehensive plan to connect communities to new jobs and opportunities, drive up standards across the rental sector, and build new homes – with the latter helping to fulfil its Housing First ambition give everyone access to a ‘safe, secure, and affordable’ home by 2038.
This week has already seen a ‘renewed focus’ on driving up housing standards thanks to the naming of the first supporters of Greater Manchester’s bold new Good Landlord Charter.
New analysis also shows that GMCA’s Brownfield Housing Fund, which was set up in 2020, has already provided grants to deliver more than 15,000 homes, with an average of just over 45% being affordable housing.
But, there’s still a long way to go.
🏡 Today at #Housing2025, we marked a major milestone: Over 50% of rented homes in Greater Manchester are now covered by the Good Landlord Charter 🎉
— Greater Manchester Combined Authority (@greatermcr) June 26, 2025
GMCA says those recent successes will not stand alone, but rather support plans to deliver more social housing than is lost across the region.
Unlocking brownfield land is what authorities claim is the key to turning the tide on the housing crisis, as since its inception in 2020, as mentioned, Greater Manchester has invested a whopping £135.4 million from the Brownfield Housing Fund to redevelop underused brownfield land, which ultimately delivered thousands of new homes.
It’s anticipated that further funding allocations will come in the summer to supplement those already approved and in the works.
GMCA is also using the power of Mayoral Development Corporations (MDC) – which are statutory bodies set up by the Mayor Andy Burnham, designed to speed up development and attract investment within a specific area – to unlock regeneration opportunities, as these ‘pioneering’ tools bring together local partners and drive forward the authority’s ambitions to build new homes, bring jobs and investment, and support economic growth.
Authorities are preparing to ‘turn the tide’ on Greater Manchester’s housing crisis / Credit: Benjamin Elliott (via Unsplash)
Some of these MDCs currently include Old Trafford (part of the proposed Western Gateway Mayoral Development Zone), the expanded Stockport MDC, and the Northern Gateway MDC (part of Atom Valley).
Together, these three alone are expected to deliver 27,250 homes over the next 15 years to help address the housing crisis.
“If we are serious about securing the long-term success of Greater Manchester, we need to free ourselves from the grip of the housing crisis,” commented Mayor Andy Burnham.
“Because of the decisions we’ve taken, Greater Manchester is now building more affordable homes than at any point since the turn of the millennium. We need to keep building on that momentum until we reach a tipping point where we build more social homes than we lose.
“We’re determined to ensure that every person in Greater Manchester has access to the safe and secure home they need in order to thrive.”
Featured Image – James Feaver (via Unsplash)
News
‘Dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture goes on public display in Greater Manchester after fears it was lost
Emily Sergeant
A long-lost masterpiece of Victorian silverwork has been saved and is now on display to the public in Greater Manchester.
Anyone taking a trip over to the National Trust’s historic Dunham Massey property, on the border of Greater Manchester into Cheshire, this summer will get to see the ‘dazzling’ sculpture called Stags in Bradgate Park – which was commissioned by a former owner in a defiant gesture to the society that shunned him.
The dramatic sculpture of two rutting Red Deer stags, commissioned in 1855 by George Harry Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford, was said to be an ‘act of love and rebellion’.
It also serves as a symbol of ‘locking horns’ with the society that ostracised him over his marriage to a woman considered ‘beneath him’.
“This isn’t just silver – it’s a story,” says James Rothwell, who is the National Trust‘s curator for decorative arts.
“A story of a man who fell in love with a woman that society deemed unworthy. When the Earl married Catherine Cox, whose colourful past was said to have included performing in a circus, Victorian high society was scandalised. Even Queen Victoria shunned the couple at the opera and local gentry at the horse races in Cheshire turned their backs on them.”
Modelled by Alfred Brown and crafted by royal goldsmiths Hunt & Roskell, Stags in Bradgate Park is a meticulously-detailed depiction of nature, and was considered a ‘sensation’ in its day.
Showing the rutting deer positioned on a rocky outcrop with gnarled hollow oaks, it graced the pages of the Illustrated London News, was exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, and at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 – both of which were events that drew millions of visitors.
A ‘dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture has gone on public display in Greater Manchester / Credit: Joe Wainwright | James Dobson (via Supplied)
The silver centrepiece was the celebrity art of its time, paraded through streets and admired by the public like no other.
Gradually over the years, some of the Earl of Stamford’s silver collection has been re-acquired for Dunham Massey, and this particular world-renowned sculpture, thought to be lost for decades and feared to have been melted down, has miraculously survived with its ‘dramatic’ central component being all that is left.
“The sculpture is not only a technical marvel, with its lifelike depiction of Bradgate Park’s rugged landscape and wildlife, but also a dramatic human story key to the history of Dunham Massey,” added Emma Campagnaro, who is the Property Curator at Dunham Massey.
Emily Sergeant -
13th September 2021 
