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Space

Moon bases will need to be 3 metres underground to avoid radiation

To keep long-term moon residents safe from harmful radiation, lunar bases will need to be built several metres under the surface or inside caves or lava tubes

By James Woodford

24 July 2024

Earth viewed from the moon

We may need bases below the surface to keep moon residents safe from radiation

Shutterstock/Shivashankara

If astronauts on the moon are to avoid harmful radiation, long-term lunar bases will need to be shielded by 2 to 3 metres of regolith – the moon’s surface layer of rock and dust.

Jingnan Guo and Mikhail Dobynde at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei have analysed how the thickness of a lunar base’s shielding would affect radiation doses for people living on the moon. Their study includes using the lunar soil as a shield as well as…

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