undefined | Better HN

0 pointsbergoid6y ago0 comments

Low gravity is one thing. But the radiation outside the Earth's magnetic field is quite another. People colonizing Mars will need to shield themselves from several types of harmful radiation. Wich means in practice: living underground.

0 comments

daxaxelrod6y ago

Could be living underground. Water is also an effective radiation shield. Combined with predictive modeling, we might have a chance.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/spaceweather/ind...

bergoidOP6y ago

Agreed. You could cover your above-ground pressurized habitat with blocks of ice. Or with a thick layer of dirt. But the subjective experience remains about the same as living underground.

allannienhuis6y ago

There are a lot of people who live indoors almost 100% of the time in the winter in northern climates. A lot of the larger northern cities have underground walkways between buildings with subway access etc. No one wants to even walk across the street when it's 40 below. :)

I expect that designs for 'permanently underground/inside' cities would need to include some high-ceiling park-like areas with some bright UV lights, and other considerations, but that sort of thing seems pretty doable. Whether it would be enough to maintain a population's mental heath I guess would need to be seen, but generally speaking I think humans are a pretty adaptable bunch...

1 more reply

kybernetikos6y ago

And then the big question becomes "How is living underground on Mars better than living underground on Earth?"

ben_w6y ago

The magnetic field is, by far, the easiest problem. There are many other unsolved problems, but that isn’t one of them.

Now I’m working if making a very large current loop on the ground would double up as a launch/landing system where the planet itself is the reaction mass…

(Probably not; the chances are the requirements for safety and reaction are orders of magnitude different from each other).

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse