It's amazing what smart people come up with when they're trying to solve a problem. The NASA folks have been bouncing ideas around about how to house astronauts who go to Mars. And they came up with an intriguing idea -- igloos.
Actually, they aren't the igloos we might imagine, although they are in the shape of a dome. The structures have thick layers of ice in the walls that would shield the inhabitants from radiation. Brilliant, huh? See A New Home on Mars: NASA Langley’s Icy Concept for Living on the Red Planet which describes the “Mars Ice Dome” concept.
Last week I shared my excitement about the National Geographic channel mini-series, "Mars." The characters spent a whole episode trying to find water, so this ice house raised a significant question -- where did they get the water? Turns out it's not such a hurdle after all if the reports about huge underground frozen lakes are accurate.
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