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We'll have to look seriously at living underground on mars. It won't protect us from solar rays on the surface. One of the cheaper ways to protect yourself is t
by placeybordeaux 9y ago
We'll have to look seriously at living underground on mars. It won't protect us from solar rays on the surface. One of the cheaper ways to protect yourself is to put a layer of rock inbetween you and the sun.
- kolinko 9y agoPerhaps if you're building a cellar. If you want to make a 10-story building - even in a virgin terrain, it's a complicated operation. Not to mention that you need to make the materials such that they resist a huge side pressure, water leaks and so on. Psychological costs are also costs.
- Retric 9y agoWater leaks are not going to be a problem on mars. Significantly lower gravity 3.711 m/s vs 9.8m/s also drastically lowers pressure from burrowing.
- ChefDenominator 9y agoWhy build layers at all? Urban concentrations too high?
- clock_tower 9y agoWide-open spaces, even enclosed ones, can reduce the psychological burden of confinement quite a bit -- there's a variety of Russian strategic-missile submarine with a swimming pool, for example. This subject also comes up frequently in SF (science fiction, not San Francisco, which has the opposite problem); there was some discussion of it on the "Atomic Rocket" worldbuilding guide, IIRC.
- lambdadmitry 9y agoI… I think the picture of that "pool" in your head is slightly wrong [1]. Tangential: the source [2] is pretty interesting. [1]: http://pics.livejournal.com/igor113/pic/001e551p http://pics.livejournal.com/igor113/pic/001e551p [2]: http://igor113.livejournal.com/27205.html http://igor113.livejournal.com/27205.html
- BurningFrog 9y agoIs the main radiation danger the Sun or the background "cosmic" radiation? I've been assuming the latter, but I realize now that I don't actually know.
- eru 9y agoDoesn't matter too much for the rocks: if a few metre of rock won't absorb the radiation, neither will your body.
- marze 9y agoBoth are significant dangers, but radiation from the sun can be shielded fairly easily. Not so high energy cosmic rays.
- BurningFrog 9y agoYou can for example put an entire planet between you and the sun radiation by going out at night.
- eru 9y agoUnderground living on Mercury is much more interesting than Mars. (There's a band close to the poles and a few meters down that has very stable and comfortable temperatures.
- csomar 9y agoIs it possible to make a huge nuclear explosion/reaction that produces the same atmosphere we have on earth?
- ceejayoz 9y agoNo?
- csomar 9y agoWrong grammar. I was actually asking a question.
- placeybordeaux 9y agoThere are ways to teraform the planet, but they are well beyond our capabilities.
- flamedoge 9y agohow to become ant people
- infiniteparamtr 9y agoHuman evolution would surely change direction after a few millenia of living underground in lower gravity