One of the main problems to be faced by participants in Mars missions – deadly cosmic radiation on the surface of the red planet. In this regard, a team of planetary scientists of the Washington Academy of Sciences proposed the idea to build Martian settlements inside the underground caves – or rather, ancient lava tubes.
The most appropriate place for this, according to scientists, could be plain Hellas (Hellas Planita) – flat lowland meteoric origin in the southern hemisphere of Mars. It is located near the equator, where the radiation level is much lower than in other places.
To prove their hypothesis, the scientists measured the level of radiation in existing lava tubes in three States and received a very encouraging result: the pipe block 82% of solar radiation reaching the earth’s surface.
This is not the first proposal to use the lava tubes for the settlement of other planets, in 2017, the Japanese space Agency has proposed to use them to build future lunar settlements. However, we should not deceive ourselves: even in the underground tunnels and the plains of Hellas the earth colonists will face life-threatening levels of radiation that require additional protection.
Source — Live Science