How to survive an Ice Age

Chamonix - Inside Mer de Glace

[Image via richdedeyan.]

BLDGBLOG ran a story today about Project Iceworm and how the US had at one point built a research/military base UNDER the greenland glacier. While reading this story, all I could think of is how this kind of technology could be used. The three places my mind goes are colonizing Antarctica, surviving the next Ice Age, and colonizing Enceladus the Ice Moon of Saturn. I know, crazy right?

With modern advances in hydroponics and a near limitless supply of geothermal energy we could live quite comfortably inside an ice sheet. Of course a nuclear reactor or some other source of power would probably be needed at first to get the colony/city started, because it would take a while to get a hydrothermal system in place (and if this was an offworld colony the planet/moon would need to have an active geothermal system to support that kind of powerplant), but thats a startup cost that could easily be repaid overtime with ready access zero-emission renewable energy. Plus, during the “melt” season, you could harness some of the sub ice melt paths as hydro-electric systems. Sure, there would be the constant maintenance and trimming of the tunnel walls, but thats the source of the city’s drinking water. The biggest issue would be maintaining contact with the world outside of the frozen city.

Its just a thought, though I admit a slightly crazy one, but at least its not an undersea dome city. And hey, stranger things have been done – man made islands anyone?