On Mars, humans don’t have to hide underground to protect themselves from radiation because the Martian atmosphere is dense enough to shield people living on the surface against the sun’s radiation.  The planet's surface will be open to the people with the aid of large inflatable domes that will creat the greenhouse effect necessary to produce a temperate climate inside.

    During the base building phase, domes of this type up to fifty meters in diameter will contain the five pounds per square inch atmosphere necessary to support human life.  These domes will be made of high strength synthetics such as Kevlar.  The question may arise of the dangers that this dome system brings about; however, such a dome one millimeter thick would be three times as strong as it needs to be to resist bursting and weight only about eight tons.  At first, these domes could be imported from Earth; however, as time passes, the domes would be manufactured on Mars.

    The key problem with using domes is their foundation for the natural shape a dome takes is a spherical one; however it poses a problem when used as the basis for a dome shelter due to the fact an enormous amount of excavation work is needed to construct the dome.  When planning to erect a fifty meter dome, you would have to excavate the pit and put the dome in it; however, you would then have to shovel the excavated material back inside to fill up the lower half of the sphere’s interior.   Obviously, this would be an extremely involved task.  Finding a natural crater of about the right size would be extremely unlikely, let alone at the chosen base site.

    Wel,l now the question may arise, what is the point of continuing with this plan?  Well, there is a way around this problem; one that relies on using an upper and lower hemisphere with a different radius of curvature.  In essence, we would be using a partial spherical section that has a larger radius of curvature than the upper hemisphere, resulting in less excavation.

    Another alternative is to use a hemispherical tent for a dome.   With a full sphere, excavation is needed however, with a tent, all that is needed is to bury the tent skirt or circular edge. However, this would still require some excavation since the upward pressure of five psi would be a force of 6,926 tons.   This would result in the skirt having to be anchored ten meters underground and 157 meters in circumference.  Anther way to anchor the skirt is to dig a shallow circular trench and lay the skirt in it.  Then stake the skirt into the ground with deep-penetrating barbed stakes.  The stakes would house long pipes through which steam would be sent down.  As it reaches the bottom, it would freeze, anchoring the stakes in the ground.

    A fourth alternative is to use an unburied sphere.  Then a series of decks could be suspended at regular latitudes inside the sphere using Kevlar cables.  Using lightweight foam, the decks could be separated into rooms which would result in an incredible amount of space, 21,000 square meters. There would be an airlock entrance to the very bottom of the sphere.  Central brick columns could support the weight of each deck with dirt around the base also bearing the load.  To protect the sphere, a large plexiglas dome would be employed.