Cheap Mars base?

Question

I'd like to see Nasa send one of these to Mars ahead of the first manned landing. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_boring_machine)

They're used here on Earth to build subway tunnels.

It seems to me that one of these could be programmed to dig tens if not hundreds of miles of tunnels, without human intervention. This thing could dig out a base the size of a small city, nearly ready for occupation.

Why can't this work?

Answer 1

Good idea but too heavy to send there..  maybe we'll find underground caverns - plus I think an inflatable type dome might be used.

Answer 2

I would oppose this idea, for the simple reason that we don't yet know if Mars ever had life. On the off chance that it did, your machine could be boring through fossil-bearing rock, destroying valuable evidence. Besides, people have to follow these machines and line the tunnels to keep them from collapsing.

Answer 3

The cost of transporting one of those boring machines to Mars would be INCREDIBLY expensive!!!  And let's not just brush aside the fact that they require extensive human maintenance during operation.  You can't just "program it" to run without human intervention...you would have to completely redesign and engineer a new kind of machine.

And how does the boring machine get started in the first place.  Here on Earth, the first thing we do is dig out the first part of the tunnel by more conventional means...then we actually assemble the machine inside the tunnel.  It's not like we start up the boring machine on the surface and it digs the initial hole.  Then you have the issue of getting rid of the waste material and lining the tunnel with concrete slabs so that it does not collapse on itself.

You haven't really thought about this very well, have you?  I've only scratched the surface of the challenges involved.

Answer 4

A tunnel boring machine isn't really 'cheap'.

That base wouldn't be occupied for quite some time.

Answer 5

u will have to transport the equipment over there. its a good idea though. disadvantage is cost but also i think that they need more things like oxygen, water, food. this is alot of money and time

Answer 6

Cheaper to send a manufactoring facility to the Red Planet that would be programmable to build virtually anything, from native materials. When humans arrive they will need such a fabrication facility. I don't know if we'll need to tunnel so much - perhaps we'll just bulldoze some of the surface regolith onto our structures' roofs - to protect against solar and cosmic radiation, of course.