Space agency: Human urine could help make concrete on Moon

European ncy said Friday that human urine could one day become a useful ingredient in making concrete to build on Moon.

ncy said researchers in a recent

It ted that using only materials available on site for a Moon base or or construction would reduce need to launch supplies from Earth.

main ingredient in “lunar concrete” would be a powdery soil found on Moon’s surface kwn as lunar regolith. ESA said urea, which can break hydrogen bonds and reduce viscosity of fluid mixtures, would limit amount of water necessary in recipe.

“Thanks to future lunar inhabitants, 1.5 liters (3.2 pints) of liquid waste a person generates each day could become a promising by-product for exploration,” it said in a statement.

On Earth, urea is used as an industrial fertilizer and a raw material by chemical and medical companies.

“ hope is that astronaut urine could be essentially used as it is on a future lunar base, with mir justments to water content," study co-author Marlies Arnhof said in ESA statement. “This is very practical, and avoids need to furr complicate sophisticated water recycling systems in .”