April 2000 Civil Engineering Magazine Abstracts From Pikes Peak to Mars By Leslie Parker, as her master s thesis at Colorado State University. If the Pikes Peak system succeeds, it will provide an important prototype for water reuse in other arid or remote regions, as well as in manned space exploration. The system will use an immobilized cell bioreactor, reverse osmosis membranes, and other disinfection units to treat graywater, producing water for reuse on-site in nonpotable applications. The entire system will be housed in a recently built army lab, which is currently in use for only four to six weeks out of the year. Back to Table of Contents On Martian Soil Joel Farrier, P.E., M.ASCE, principal of the URS Corporation in San Francisco.
Discussions are ongoing about how and when to build human settlements on other worlds.
Many scientific discussions have focused on settlements on Mars, and how the initial colonists would design and build the structures they need with minimal materials and equipment from Earth, which would be expensive to transport. The use of Martian soil, or regolith, combined with the design and use of analogues to the geosynthetic materials used here on Earth, could prove critical to these early construction projects. Martian regolith can be used for embankments, insulation, and protection, as soil is on Earth. High density polypropylene can be formed into the rigid and semirigid structures that will be needed for shelter. And galvanized steel, aluminum, or other metals, which would corrode if used in soils on earth, could be confidently used on Mars due to the planet s low pressure and lack of oxygen.