This is an interesting question because if we are ever going to visit Mars, we will have to build enclosed places and will probably have to make cement to form them. I would imagine that if you ground up the martian meteorite you could make some kind of cement, but without large quantities of lime to serve as a binder, and quantities of disposable water, you would have a tough time making martian cement.
Lime comes from calcium deposits produced by single celled creatures called diatoms.
Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald Return to Ask the Astronomer .