The human occupation of
Mars will have to wait until we have our own Magnetic Field
Exclusion Vessels (MFEVs) able to easily transport us there and back.
Google this blog for a full description and the article I published
in Viewzone.com.
However, there is one
aspect presently poorly understood about that occupation. It is that
it will need to be developed underground and that will turn out to be
surprisingly easy. There are two reasons for this. The first is
that the lower gravity means that larger voids can be built, likely
several times the size possible on Earth. The second is way more
subtle. Earth's crust is dynamical and this has resulted in
extensive brittle fracture throughout the crust. Unless you are
working through rock that is naturally self healing, the fracturing
is pervasive. That will not be true on Mars.
Thus engineering large
chambers and passages will be both practical and very safe. A city
of multiple large chambers becomes easy with minimum roof security to
install. The low gravity also suggests that we can build several
miles deep compared to the maximum two miles we achieve on Earth.
This also means that a
dense atmosphere can be easily captured in such a structure making
habitation easy and secure. If it turns out that ample water is also
located, then an internal ecology can be established using a fusion
energy plant.
It should be obvious that
with a three dimensional structure that the possibilities of
supporting a huge population flies through the roof. A cubic
kilometer would have twenty percent usable space and assuming a
living person needed ten cubic meters, we conservatively assign
20,000,000 people. Go down ten miles and we approach a quarter of a
billion individuals.
Thus using simple well
known technology, it is possible to install the entire population of
Earth inside a few cubic miles.
This applies to almost
any small planet out there and is surely the safest strategy anyway.
It is also inevitable that any alien group setting up shop in a solar
system will do precisely that. Taking it further, we should be
checking for aliens underfoot instead of in the skies.
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