but seriously, today, i have been taken to an analogue which could be very similar to ourfirst home on an alien world. 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