From everything else. so what we think is that if there are lava tubes on mars, there could be life in there, too. next, daniel is keen to show me another terrestrial analogue a couple of hours drive from the lava tube, and this one is even more extreme. we re going under the ice to an environment of very different challenges. we think about the lava tube that we visited earlier that s a ready made structure perfect for potential habitat. whereas the analogue we re currently in, here in the ice tunnel, this is a wonderful place to do isolated confined extreme environments to test various challenges that have to do with cold weather and isolation. how important is it that we find and use water ice on the moon and mars?
The last place that you d want to live on the moon or on mars is on the surface. the atmosphere of mars is toxic, the soil is poisonous and abrasive and it will cut through your suit and stick to your equipment. it has a thin atmosphere and no real magnetic field, so it can t protect you from meteorites or solar radiation. so if you want to live on the moon or mars, the best place to do it is underground. we re in a lava tube a hollow tunnel formed when hot lava melted its way through the surface, leaving behind a roof of cooling rock and an empty space after the lava flowed on downhill. and instead of having to drill out underground shelters, lunar and martian lava tubes would create ready made protection from the hazards above.
We know without any question that there was volcanism on the surface of mars and, in fact, the largest volcano in our solar system exists at olympus mons, which is a volcano so high that the peak actually pierces through the atmosphere of mars. wow. yeah. and in the whole area of the basin around the volcano olympus mons it is believed there are certainly lava tubes. here s something else that s really exciting about this lava tube. now, mars is red because there is a lot of iron in the rocks. and that white glistening stuff there, that is icelandic cave bacteria. it doesn t need any light to live. it can survive in near freezing temperature. it just feeds off the iron and the sulphur in the rocks down here, away
Flowed on downhill. and instead of having to drill out underground shelters, lunar and martian lava tubes would create ready made protection from the hazards above. we know without any question that there was volcanism on the surface of mars and, in fact, the largest volcano in our solar system exists at olympus mons, which is a volcano so high that the peak actually pierces through the atmosphere of mars. wow. yeah. and in the whole area of the basin around the volcano olympus mons it is believed there are certainly lava tubes. here s something else that s really exciting about this lava tube. now, mars is red because there is a lot of iron in the rocks. and that white glistening stuff there, that is icelandic cave bacteria.
It doesn t need any light to live. it can survive in near freezing temperature. it just feeds off the iron and the sulphur in the rocks down here, away from everything else. so what we think is that if there are lava tubes on mars, there could be life in there, too. next, daniel is keen to show me another terrestrial analogue a couple of hours drive from the lava tube, and this one is even more extreme. we re going under the ice to an environment of very different challenges. we think about the lava tube that we visited earlier that s a ready made structure perfect for potential habitat. whereas the analogue we re currently in, here in the ice