[placeybordeaux]

We'll have to look seriously at living underground on mars. It won't protect us from solar rays on the surface. One of the cheaper ways to protect yourself is to put a layer of rock inbetween you and the sun.

[BurningFrog]

Is the main radiation danger the Sun or the background "cosmic" radiation?

I've been assuming the latter, but I realize now that I don't actually know.

[marze]

Both are significant dangers, but radiation from the sun can be shielded fairly easily. Not so high energy cosmic rays.

[BurningFrog]

You can for example put an entire planet between you and the sun radiation by going out at night.

[eru]

Doesn't matter too much for the rocks: if a few metre of rock won't absorb the radiation, neither will your body.

[schoen]

That doesn't make too much sense to me, since your body could be harmed by absorbing only a fraction of the energy of a large radiation dose.

[eru]

Valid point. Though I think given the spectra involved, it probably doesn't apply.

[eru]

Underground living on Mercury is much more interesting than Mars. (There's a band close to the poles and a few meters down that has very stable and comfortable temperatures.

[kolinko]

Perhaps if you're building a cellar. If you want to make a 10-story building - even in a virgin terrain, it's a complicated operation.

Not to mention that you need to make the materials such that they resist a huge side pressure, water leaks and so on.

Psychological costs are also costs.

[Retric]

Water leaks are not going to be a problem on mars. Significantly lower gravity 3.711 m/s vs 9.8m/s also drastically lowers pressure from burrowing.

[clock_tower]

Wide-open spaces, even enclosed ones, can reduce the psychological burden of confinement quite a bit -- there's a variety of Russian strategic-missile submarine with a swimming pool, for example. This subject also comes up frequently in SF (science fiction, not San Francisco, which has the opposite problem); there was some discussion of it on the "Atomic Rocket" worldbuilding guide, IIRC.

[lambdadmitry]

I… I think the picture of that "pool" in your head is slightly wrong [1].

Tangential: the source [2] is pretty interesting.

[1]: http://pics.livejournal.com/igor113/pic/001e551p

[2]: http://igor113.livejournal.com/27205.html

[ChefDenominator]

Why build layers at all? Urban concentrations too high?

[csomar]

Is it possible to make a huge nuclear explosion/reaction that produces the same atmosphere we have on earth?

[placeybordeaux]

There are ways to teraform the planet, but they are well beyond our capabilities.

[ceejayoz]

No?

[csomar]

Wrong grammar. I was actually asking a question.

[flamedoge]

how to become ant people

[infiniteparamtr]

Human evolution would surely change direction after a few millenia of living underground in lower gravity