Radiator positioning

--- In spacesettlers, joe wrote:

> On Apr 18, 2007, at 04:53 UTC, Chris Smyth wrote:

>> As a general question, if a moon base is constructed underground
>> at mid-latitudes (using existing lava tubes or man-made tunnels)
>> does anyone have an idea of how deep those tunnels would need to
>> be in order to provide adequate radiation shielding and steady
>> ambient temperatures? I'm thinking any ambient temperatures from 20
>> to -100 degrees C would do.

> A couple of meters down would do it, IIRC.
>
> Best,
> - Joe

Whenever I read about moonbases, it seems they want to bury everything
five metres deep. if two is enough for the orbital habitats which get
radiated from every side, I'm not sure why on the moon you need five.
But if "a couple of meters down" will do the job for both radiation
and for steady temperatures, then five metres down certainly will.

So, what temperature would we be looking at? If it's -100C, then
heating the thing could get expensive. If it's 60C, then keeping
cool is a problem. Still, if it's -100 or 60 ALL THE TIME, then
that's gotta be easier to deal with that a two-week cycle of -173 to
117, over and over and over again forever.

I just looked up the average at Wikipedia. The average is -53C
(-63F). This is probably what we'd be looking at.