Source: Jacobs School of Engineering/UC San DiegoEngineers hoping to provide habitats for a future manned mission to Mars have found a way to create bricks using soil from that planet. According to the findings being published in Scientific Reports, the material will not require additional ingredients, or even an oven, to prepare them.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego discovered that they wouldn't need polymer mixtures as a binding agent for the soil because the iron-oxide responsible for the color of the soil on Mars naturally acts as a binding agent.

Instead, inch-tall soil pallets (simulated soil from Mars) were created from applied pressure (imagine a blow from a hammer). Once the material is enclosed in a flexible container, pressure is dealt to the container, compacting the material. Upon investigation, the resulting bricks were found to be stronger than steel-reinforced concrete.