In news that that shouldn’t surprise anybody who knows pee is golden for a reason, some researchers believe that future moon settlers may use their own urine to help make concrete and build structures on our natural satellite. Some more info while I make something with pee. “My guess is a mess on the floor beside the toilet.” It’s like you’re washing your hands and watching me in the mirror:

This high cost of transport [~$10,000/pound from earth to orbit] means that researchers are seeking alternative building material to construct a lunar settlement, including raw materials found on the moon or ones generated by the astronauts themselves, like their pee, for instance.

Researchers have devised a way to use urea, an organic compound found in human urine, to create better “lunar concrete,” the European Space Agency announced statement.

Urea, the most abundant component in human urine after water, can break down hydrogen bonds and reduce the viscosities of fluid mixtures, per the Associated Press. Researchers mixed water, urea and lunar regolith–a powdery soil found on the moon’s surface–together and 3-D printed geopolymer cylinders of the mixture, Jake Parks reports for Astronomy. When urea was used in the mixture, the results were malleable and easy to shape.

And here I’ve just been splattering it all over my flip-flopped feet and flushing it down the toilet. I’m going to start selling my pee to NASA! “I think that would defeat the purpose.” Plus to anybody who needs to pass a drug test. “How much?” $80 but I will still tell your parents.

Thanks to Thaylor H, who agrees who’s laughing now for saving all these urine-filled jars?

Source: Geekologie – Astronauts May Use Their Own Urine To Mix Space Concrete, Build Moon Base