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It’s such a bore: you go all the way to the Moon…and forget the bricks
to build your moonbase. But never fear—Ebrahim Khalili of California
reckons that Moon dust will do the job nicely (WO 99/42667). His sandbag
buildings will help space travellers colonise the Moon, planets and asteroids
using local materials. You simply shovel Moon dust into the bags and stack them
neatly in layers, placing strands of ordinary barbed wire on top of each layer.
The barbs pierce the bags and bond them together, so they can be fashioned into
a strong dome shape. Domes can withstand a lot of ground motion, so this
invention could also provide vibration-resistant shelter in quake zones on
Earth, Khalili says.