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Editor’s opinion: Future astronauts could one day use the natural structures already in place on the Moon and Mars as the basis for human colonies. Not having to build bases above the ground would save huge sums of money and could speed up the colonization of these bodies by years.
Researchers from the University of Bologna, working with those from the University of Padua, compared lava tubes here on Earth with their counterparts on the Moon and Mars. Cave-shaped structures, also called fire pipelines, are a natural conduit created by lava flow from a volcano.
Based on what we’ve been able to observe from satellite imagery and interplanetary probes (we don’t have any direct information yet), the researchers believe these channels could be ideal candidates for underground bases.
For starters, they’re huge. It is believed that some Martian tubes are 100 times wider than those on Earth, which are typically 30 to 100 feet in diameter. Examples on the Moon, meanwhile, could be up to 1,000 times wider than local variants, with some extending up to 25 miles in length.
Additionally, the tubes could shield inhabitants from cosmic and solar radiation, help regulate temperature variations between day and night, and even protect people from the impacts of micrometeorites that are common on these bodies.
Image Credit: Alexander Demyanenko, Pavel Chagochkin
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