Massive lava tubes below the surface of the moon and Mars could be prime real estate for future habitats of the world. “With heights dwarfing Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, and ‘roof rights’ as large as football fields,” the formations could contain small towns protected from solar radiation, LiveScience reports. According to a new study of geology published in the scientific journal Earth-Science Reviews, ‘most of the lunar tubes could be intact, making the moon an extraordinary target for exploration of the subsoil and possible settlement in the moon. widely protected and stable lava tube environments From LiveScience:
Science fiction authors like Kim Stanley Robinson have at times suggested printing craters like lava tubes and filling them with air. But Pozzobon said that scenario is unlikely, not least because in the lava tubes of the moon openings can be as wide as a football field.
“Because of their enormous size and the possibility of leaks due to rock breaking, I would see that they are not likely to be put under pressure,” Pozzobon told Live Science. “What is more likely is to establish settlements within this void, whether for hosting people or for storing equipment.”
However, even stashing a base in a lava tube presents challenges.
“Although a lava tube could provide shelter for thermal excursion, radiation and micro-impact, it is not easily accessible and the basaltic rocks of the interior can be razor-like sharp and the terrain very uneven,” he said. “That the technical challenges of placing inflatable habitats in such impressive caves are not trivial and require very detailed studies.”
image: European space scientists study lava tubes on Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. (ESA – L. Ricci)
Host Deane Hutton of Australia’s vintage children’s show The Curiosity Show demonstrates the optical illusion called an Ames window. The trapezoid is named after the American ophthalmologist Adelbert Ames Jr., who first demonstrated the phenomenon. Ames is probably better known from the Ames Room: Ames rooms have been used in a number of music videos and […]
READ THE REST
Look at the skies! The highlight of Perseid’s Mete shower is taking place tonight! The bright quarter moon will limit the number of shooting stars you will see, but you can still expect about 15-20 per hour, depending on where you are. The meteors are pun from Comet Swift-Tuttle burning at speed in the Earth’s atmosphere […]
READ THE REST
“The U.S. has reached a landmark of sorts in its hitherto not very successful battle with the virus that causes Covid-19 – most Americans now know someone who is infected,” Justin Fox wrote to Bloomberg, about social data from coronavirus from Navigator Research, shown above.
READ THE REST
We all know that global data is growing exponentially. But if you sit back and really look at the numbers, you might still be surprised at how fast all that data piles up. By next year, the collected world data is expected to reach 44 bytes, a tenfold increase over the 4.4 bytes we have […]
READ THE REST
Sour bread and its unique allure date back at least 3,500 years to the ancient Egyptians. Of course, no one knows exactly when one will first encounter soil, liquid and the open air to cultivate wild yeasts that give sour one-of-a-kind flavor. But literally thousands of years have been bakers and pastry chefs […]
READ THE REST
We are deep in August, the time every summer where we are all well grown and tired of this heat. Meanwhile, 2020 offers the added graying of masks and face covering, making our faces more polluted and uncomfortable than ever before in these oppressive temperatures. Instead of suffering from the summer heat in silence, you can take it […]
READ THE REST
