Lunar and Martian tunnels could contain colonies outside the world / Boing Boing



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Lunar and Martian tunnels could contain colonies outside the world / Boing Boing

Massive lava tubes beneath the surface of the Moon and Mars could be prime real estate for future non-world habitats. “With heights that eclipse Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, and ‘skylights’ as large as football fields,” the formations could contain small towns shielded from solar radiation, reports LiveScience. According to a new geology study published in the scientific journal Earth-Science Reviews, “most of the lunar tubes could be intact, making the Moon an extraordinary target for underground exploration and potential colonization in the vast stable and protected environments. lava tubes. From LiveScience:

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.

“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.”

image: Researchers at the European Space Agency explore lava tubes in Lanzarote, Canary Islands. (ESA – L. Ricci)




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