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Mars is pockmarked with absolutely massive lava tubes, with ceilings as high as the Empire State Building, new research shows. And the moon is home to even more gargantuan tubes, with heights that surpass Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and “skylights” as tall as football fields.
These yawning underground caverns, which are shielded from solar radiation, could be used as sites for future human bases, scientists say.
A lava tube is a tunnel under the surface of a world, formed by an intense flow of Molten rock during a volcanic explosion. Sure Earth, they are more easily spotted when they collapse, forming long furrows in the earth. Partial collapses sometimes form chains of “skylights” that reveal hidden lava tubes that are mostly intact. Researchers have speculated that lava tubes may have existed on Mars and the moon since the 1960s, but in recent years, Martian and lunar orbiters have released home footage showing how likely these formations are common, both on the red planet and on our moon. Now the researchers say in a new article published on July 20 in the journal Earth-Science Reviews, it’s time to seriously explore them.
Here’s why: These lava tubes are really huge and could offer safer habitats than lunar or Martian surfaces.
Related: 6 reasons astrobiologists hope to live on Mars
“The largest lava tubes on Earth are at the maximum [about] 40 meters [130 feet] in width and height, “said study co-author Riccardo Pozzobon, a geoscientist at the University of Padua, Italy.” So like a very large motorway tunnel. “
It’s definitely big enough for some people to fit in. But on Mars, collapsed lava tubes tend to be about 80 times the size of those on Earth, with diameters ranging from 130 to 1,300 feet (40 to 400 m). Researchers have found that lunar lava tubes appear to be even larger, with collapse sites 300 to 700 times the size of Earth. Lunar lava tubes probably range from 1,600 to 3,000 feet (500 to 900 m).
A lava tube on the moon, Pozzobon told Live Science, could easily contain a small town within its walls.
The scale of these alien lava tubes is likely the result of low Martian and lunar gravity, as well as differences in how volcanoes operated on these bodies compared to Earth.
Related: The 10 most dangerous countries for volcanoes (Photos)
To assess the size of the lunar and Martian lava tubes, the researchers collected 3D laser scans of their counterparts – both collapsed and intact – on Earth. Then, they collected all available satellite images of collapsed lava tubes on Mars and the moon and modeled the size of the intact tubes based on the relationships between collapsed and intact tunnels on Earth.
Lava tubes make human habitats attractive for a number of reasons, including protection from meteors that don’t burn as easily in fine Martian and lunar atmospheres, the researchers wrote. They also likely contain useful chemicals, like water ice and volatile chemicals that can be used to make fuel. A thick layer of rock above the head can also, Previously reported Live Science, offers protection against the sun radiation. And skylights would still provide easy access to the surface.
Science fiction writers like Kim Stanley Robinson have sometimes imagined pressurizing craters or lava tubes and filling them with air. But Pozzobon said that scenario was unlikely, not least because in the moon’s lava tubes, openings can be as wide as a football field.
Related: Here’s what NASA’s Opportunity rover saw before the lights went out
“Due to their huge size and the possibility of leaking from rocks fracturing, I would see them pressurizing very unlikely,” Pozzobon told Live Science. “What is more likely is to establish colonies in these voids, either to house humans or to store material.”
However, even storing a base in a lava tube presents challenges.
“Although a lava tube can provide shelter from thermal excursions, radiation and micro-impacts, it is not easily accessible and the basalt rocks within it can be razor sharp and the terrain very uneven. “, did he declare. “Thus, the technical challenges of setting up inflatable habitats in such impressive caves are not trivial and require very detailed studies.”
Right now, the immediate challenge is to gather more information about the intact lava tubes on the moon and Earth. Currently, researchers can only identify them from satellite images of skylights or collapses. But differentiating a skylight from a simple hole in the ground is tricky. Researchers are looking for tilted images of the holes that reveal the void below, he said, or other geological clues from a nearby cave. But nothing beats direct exploration, the researchers wrote.
Models suggest that Martian lava tubes were more likely to have grown to the point of collapsing when the planet was volcanically active, and might be more difficult to find intact. A greater proportion of lunar tubes are likely structurally sound, the researchers wrote. This makes the moon’s lava tubes better candidates for exploration.
It’s important, the researchers wrote, that scientists come up with a detailed plan to explore the tubes. Right now, no rover is self-sufficient enough or built with the right equipment to go caving on the Moon or Mars. And before designing and launching a rover to accomplish this task, satellites equipped with ground-penetrating radar or other remote sensing technology should build detailed maps of underground tube formations. The process of finding ideal sites for sub-lunar or submartian human habitation will likely take a long time and involve many intermediate steps, the researchers wrote.
So while Earth may seem like a particularly inhospitable place right now, it’s a bit too early to pack up and move through an alien lava tube.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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