MARTIAN LAVATUBES AS HABITATS Ð REVISITED
refrederi@teleport.com
One of the key elements for successful long-term human occupation of Mars, is a
viable habitation scheme. Countless ideas have been proposed along these lines
from converted landers to inflatable domes. The advantages of most schemes thus
far are that they are location independent, to an extent. The lander lands and
the habitation is set up. In other words, bring the habitat to Mars. But what
if ready-made habitats were available? Select locations on the planet, which
with minor modifications, could easily serve as a semi-permanent base of
operations? These locations could well be lava tubes.
Lava tubes are caves formed by flows of highly fluid lava--a "river"
of molten rock flowing from an eruption source, either volcano or fissure.
Often as the flow progresses, the tops and sides solidify. If the flow source
stops, the remaining lava may pour out, leaving a hollow "tube" of rock.
On the Earth, the author has personally visited lava tubes on the flanks of
Mount St. Helens, in Washington state, the Big Island of Hawaii as well as
tubes formed by fissure eruptions in Iceland. Many of the lava flows identified
on the planet Mars feature the same characteristics as terrestrial flows,
including lava tubes. The main difference is a matter of scale: The Martian
features dramatically dwarf their Earth-based counterparts.
This paper, an updated version submitted several years ago as a poster paper
for "Case For Mars '96," highlights extensive field work done by the
Oregon L5 Society along this same line of thought. We will demonstrate how the
much larger Martian versions could provide a quick, easy and inexpensive way to
provide long-term human outposts on the Red Planet.