4 ms·

Didn't Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy include tent cities on Mars that used transparent aerogels for insulation? [NB Those books seriously made me want to

• jwilliams 7y ago
  Aerogels are mentioned in both Red and Green Mars - Mostly as pillars for the tents, but KSR mentions "airgels" (spelling in my copy) as an insulation layer in the tent material too.
  • Retric 7y ago
    That seems odd. With the large pressure difference support pillars seem unnecessary for tents. Why did they need such exotic support pillars?
    • jwilliams 7y ago
      In the book "tents" euphemistically refers to tenting that encloses small towns. Also the tent fabric was a multi-layered thing (one layer was to absorb some radiation). Imagine this is why supports were seen as necessary.
      • deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
    • kaikai 7y ago
      He wrote that as pressure increased due to terraforming projects, the tents needed more support.