By casting one eye to a past where ancient buildings were held together with animal blood, and one eye to a future where humans use Martian soil for on-site construction, scientists have cooked up a new recipe for cost effective “cosmic concrete.” Groups of astronauts in space could produce hundreds of kilograms of the material each year, according to the scientists, continually expanding a potential Martian habitat with every visit.

The new building material was developed by scientists at the University of Manchester, who drew inspiration from ancient construction methods that involved mixing animal blood into mortar to act as the binding material. Pig blood and lime mortar was one of the more notable mixes, in which the blood regulated the growth of calcium carbonate crystal, with one study even describing this as “one of the most important technological inventions in the Chinese architectural history.”

“It is exciting that a major challenge of the space age may have found its solution based on inspirations from medieval technology,” says author of the new study, Dr Aled Roberts.

More recently, scientists have been busy exploring the question of how habitats might be constructed during future Mars or lunar missions. Loading spacecraft up with bricks or bags of cement would be prohibitively expensive, so this field of research involves investigating how these structures can be made out of the materials that are already there, with the soils of the Moon and Mars a prime target.

Some interesting studies in this area have shown how these soils can be mixed with other ingredients and fashioned into flexible building blocks, bricks that are stronger than reinforced concrete or some that even generate electricity. Alternatively, Martian soil is thought to contain metals that could be extracted and melted down to form key parts of a shelter.

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