NASA has confirmed the hypothesis that cement can be produced in space, through laboratory solidification experiments conducted on the International Space Station.
For the MICS project (Microgravity Investigation of Cement Solidification) tricalcium silicate (C3S) and water were mixed outside the Earth's gravity for the first time.. The main mineral component of most commercially available cement, C3S controls many of its chemical reactions and properties. MICS explored whether solidifying cement in microgravity would result in unique microstructures and provided a first comparison of cement samples processed on the ground and in microgravity. The research has been published in Frontiers in Materials.
Showing that cement can harden and grow in space represents an important step towards that first structure built on the Moon using materials from the Moon. "We confirmed the hypothesis that this can be done," said Radlinska.
