Brick
Starting from Martian clay or other materials, a brick-maker can create a wide variety of structures and paved surfaces as well as furnaces and ovens for smelting, blacksmithing, glass-blowing, cooking, etc. The brick-making craft requires only other small-scale crafts for its equipment (blacksmithing for its iron tools), thus qualifies as a small-scale craft suitable for a frontier town (small and largely self-sufficient) economy.
Due to the 1/3 gravity, structures made out of brick can be much larger than on Earth, yet still hold up under their own weight and be easy to transport. However, due to the internal pressure required for most martian buildings, brick construction that also has to withstand pressure requires a separate air tight bladder structure or substantial reinforcements.
Material
The brick can be made from regolith, plastics, fiberglass or composite materials. Regolith can be sintered at high temperatures. A mixture of molten plastics and regolith powder can be produced at moderate temperatures.
Embodied energy
Different types of brick require different amounts of energy to produce.
| Materials | Embodied energy
(MJ/kg) |
Density
(kg/m3) |
Production |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regolith | 0,5 | 2000 | Regolith compressed and combined with some form of cement |
| Clay | 3 | 2000 | Martian clay baked and fired |
| Plastic | 80-100 | 900 | Plastic from biomass or CO2+hydrogen reactions |
| Glass | 15 | 2500 | Silica, cleaned and with required additives |
