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

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…