Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/18/lunar-and-martian-tunnels-coul.html
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Lunar and Martian tunnels could contain offworld colonies
Lunar and Martian tunnels could already contain offworld colonies.
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Another important aspect of Mars is that the soil is rather toxic, so life/people above ground would have to contend with abundant perchlorates and its interaction with UV rays. Depending on how far down these tubes are there may be none or a much lower percentage of perchlorates which would make setting up more desirable.
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Obligs.
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Hyperchlorates?
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Probably leftover from all the chemtrails.
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A couple cans of spackle will fix that right up.
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And duct tape.
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Ah yes. We all get along and function so well here on our home planet, I’m sure we’ll do fine living in close quarters in a tunnel on the moon.
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But also remember that if you want to live in a hole in the ground you could do so much easier on Earth. Sure it costs a lot to dig a giant tunnel to live in, but it’s still way cheaper than doing anything on Mars or even the Moon. As an added bonus if your Earth tunnel develops a leak you don’t die.
If you’re looking at this from a survival of the species point of view, a tunnel on Earth is pretty much just as good or better than a tunnel on Mars or the Moon. Even a dinosaur killing meteor won’t do much to your underground habitat.
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Depth of Chicxulub Crater
Better hope you’re not too close to the impact site.
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Your Earth-tunnel can be easily invaded by the people you didn’t invite to survive the death of the planet. Whereas your Mars-tunnel is practically impervious to hungry mobs!
DISCLAIMER: you may be designated as part of the new Martian underclass
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Weapons were removed from lifepod fabricators following the massacre on Obraxis Prime.
That aside; perhaps my sense of wonder is defective or something; but it seems like going to the moon and/or Mars would be an awful lot of trouble if you are just going to live in a hole in the ground because you’ll die if you go outside. We have crumbling cold war infrastructure for that sort of thing.
Given the (nontrivial) changes you will probably need for things like reasonably normal function in severely limited gravity, though, mood altering drugs to deal with both depression and hostility are probably a fairly small measure in terms of the sorts of biochemical or biomedical engineering interventions that space colonization would require.
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Lunar-grade Flex Seal™ and Flex Seal™ Tape
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On the other hand, meteor impacts are a far more common problem for Mars and Moon habitats.
came here to find this, left satisfied
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Especially when Elon the Third starts dropping ocean moons on Mars.
They must be careful with turbinium and glaciers inside the planet.
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Meh, you start in a tunnel and you work to fix the rest of the planet. Try as you might, you cannot reason the thirst for exploration and discovery out of humankind. These lines of reasoning remind me of “Art. Why?” and “Why would anyone choose to work dangerous jobs?” The human answer sometimes is: because.
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