Tents are for life on Mars

A group of students in the US combine knowledge of aviation mechanics and textile technology to create a tent suitable for the conditions on the red planet.

Model of a astronaut tent on Mars by North Carolina University student group. Photo: NASA.

Popular Science said the tent is the product of a group of students at the University of North Carolina, USA. The main material of the tent is a fiber capable of insulating and fighting many types of radiation. This fiber is used to make protective clothing for people working in Japan's Fukushima I nuclear power plant.

When users pump air into the valve, the tent will swell and become very hard and tough. If you want to move the tent to another place, the user removes the steam valve so that the tent collapses. Gold is laminated on the outer surface of the tent shell to block ultraviolet rays - a type of radiation that is harmful to humans. Because the tent has a dome structure and high rigidity, it has the ability to withstand the impact of meteorites - which frequently plunge into the red planet. The area of ​​the tent is about 177 m ² , large enough for a group of astronauts to live and study.

The Sabatier reactor is the tent's most remarkable accompanying device . This type of reactor causes a reaction between CO2 and hydrogen gas at high temperatures to produce methane (as fuel) and water. From water one can create oxygen (for breathing) and hydrogen. The CO2-rich atmosphere of Mars is the ideal operating environment of the Sabatier.

The International Space Station (ISS) is also equipped with the Sabatier reactor. However, the reactor selected by the student group is more efficient and safer than the ISS furnace.