Caves of Mars Project

Caves of Mars Project

The Caves of Mars Project is a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts funded program to assess the best place to situate the research and habitation modules that a manned mission to Mars would require.

Caves and other underground structures, including lava tubes, canyon overhangs, and other Martian cavities would be potentially useful for manned missions, for they would provide considerable shielding from both the elements and intense radiation that a Mars mission would expose astronauts to. They might also offer access to minerals, gases, ices, and any life that the crew of such a mission would probably be searching for.

The program also studies designs for inflatable modules and other such structures that would aid the astronauts.

It is now known that water comes to the surface of Mars from time to time, but whether NASA will change the project in light of this has not been revealed.

2007 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference

NASA scientists studying pictures from the Odyssey spacecraft have spotted what they think may be seven caves on the flanks of the Arsia Mons volcano on Mars. The cave entrances measure from 100m to 252m wide and they are believed to be at least 73m to 96m deep. Because light did not reach the floor of most of the caves, it is likely that they extend much deeper than these lower estimates. Dena was the only exception, its floor was observed and measured to be 130m deep. The caves may be the only natural structures offering protection from the micrometeoroids, UV radiation, solar flares and high energy particles that bombard the planet's surface. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6461201.stm]

External links

* Leonard David, [http://space.com/scienceastronomy/050222_mars_methane.html "Digging and Sniffing for Life on Mars"] , space.com, February 22, 2005
* [http://www.highmars.org/niac/index.html Caves of Mars website] , Complex Systems Research; Inc. (funded by a NIAC Phase II grant from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts)
* Paul Rincon, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6461201.stm "'Cave entrances' spotted on Mars"] , "BBC News", March 17, 2007
* [http://library.thinkquest.org/C003763/index.php?page=interview09 "Life in the Extremes: An Interview With Dr. Penelope Boston"] , 2000
* [http://s3.amazonaws.com/planetary/22295/pr20070618_64kb.mp3 Planetary Society Radio] interview with NASA scientists on the caves.


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