Editor’s take: Future astronauts could one day use natural structures that were already on the moon and Mars as the basis for human colonies. If you did not have to build above-ground bases, massive amounts of money would be saved and the colonization of these bodies could be accelerated by many years.
Researchers from the University of Bologna, in collaboration with those from the University of Padua, have lava tubes here on Earth compared to opposites on the moon and Mars. The cave-like structures, also called pyroducts, are a natural conduit created by the flow of lava from a volcano.
Based on what we have been able to observe via satellite images and interplanetary probes (we do not yet have direct information), the researchers believe that these channels could be ideal candidates for subterranean bases.
For a start, they are massive. It is thought that some Martian tubes are 100 times wider than those on Earth, which typically have a diameter of 30 to 100 feet. Samples per month could meanwhile be up to 1,000 times wider than local variants, with some ranges up to 25 miles long.
Furthermore, the tubes could protect inhabitants from cosmic and solar radiation, help regulate temperature fluctuations between day and night, and even protect humans from the influence of micrometeorites that are common on such bodies.
Image credit: Alexander Demyanenko, Pavel Chagochkin
