Good point. Mars would only be better off if the colonies over-engineered their radiation protection. Otherwise anything that gets through Earth’s natural protection would probably get through Martian settlements designed to give the same level of protection. It might be relatively cheap to over-engineer (e.g. digging in an extra meter), but it might not.
It might be relatively cheap to over-engineer (e.g. digging in an extra meter), but it might not.
FWIW, while researching my Moore’s law essay, I found materials claiming that underground construction was more expensive but paid for itself via better heating/cooling. But that was for shallow cut-and-scrape constructions and I suspect 1 meter wouldn’t take care of supernova radiation.
I suspect 1 meter wouldn’t take care of supernova radiation.
As far as I understand the issue, the danger is mainly from the temporary ozone layer depletion, with the resulting solar UV rays doing most of the damage, and not from any kind of direct supernova radiation. And UV is not hard to shield from.
Hm, so you’re right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_supernova#Effects_on_Earth In that case, it doesn’t sound like that much of a direct threat at all: we can use cheap underground or UV-glass-filtering greenhouses to grow our food. A disaster, but not really an existential threat.
Good point. Mars would only be better off if the colonies over-engineered their radiation protection. Otherwise anything that gets through Earth’s natural protection would probably get through Martian settlements designed to give the same level of protection. It might be relatively cheap to over-engineer (e.g. digging in an extra meter), but it might not.
FWIW, while researching my Moore’s law essay, I found materials claiming that underground construction was more expensive but paid for itself via better heating/cooling. But that was for shallow cut-and-scrape constructions and I suspect 1 meter wouldn’t take care of supernova radiation.
As far as I understand the issue, the danger is mainly from the temporary ozone layer depletion, with the resulting solar UV rays doing most of the damage, and not from any kind of direct supernova radiation. And UV is not hard to shield from.
Hm, so you’re right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_supernova#Effects_on_Earth In that case, it doesn’t sound like that much of a direct threat at all: we can use cheap underground or UV-glass-filtering greenhouses to grow our food. A disaster, but not really an existential threat.