Could Lava Tubes Be the Key to Human Life on Mars and the Moon?

Scientists have found lava tubes on Mars and the moon are so wide, they could be prime real estate for humans to set up shop.

Transcript

00:00Lava tubes on Mars and the Moon could be prime real estate for humans to set up shop.

00:10Scientists have been studying lava tubes on Earth to see if their counterparts in space would be up to snuff.

00:16And they found the ones on Mars and the Moon are so wide they could host planetary bases.

00:21The team involving the Universities of Bologna and Padua used digital terrain models to measure collapsed lava tubes

00:28and compared them to ones on Earth.

00:30Martian tubes are about 100 times wider than ones on Earth, while the moons are 1,000 times their size.

00:37Researchers say tubes as wide as those can be longer than 24 miles, making them great for potential settlement.

00:43Even though they're that big, researchers say they're still within the roof stability threshold due to the lower gravitational attraction.

00:50Lava tubes could also provide protection from cosmic and solar radiation and micrometeorite impacts

00:56and provide stable temperatures. The research was published in the journal Earth Science Reviews.