Lunar Lava Caves Might Offer Shelter For First Moon Colony

Lunar caves hollowed out by ancient lava flows might offer humanity the perfect place to establish the first base on the moon, according to researchers from Purdue University.

Geophysicist Dave Blair and his university colleagues theorize that there could be huge caverns under the moon’s surface hollowed out by rivers of molten rock that may be wide enough to fit an entire lunar colony.

On Earth, lava tubes formed when rivers of molten rock hollowed out the surrounding stone leaving behind empty channels. The lava tubes running under Hawaii and Iceland are cylindrical in shape and measure no more than 98 feet in diameter, but the moon’s lower gravity means there could be massive underground caverns underneath the lunar surface.

Blair’s research paper, presented in the January, 2017, issue of Icarus, presents data on an analysis of the moon’s gravity pulled from NASA studies that indicates there could be mile-wide lava tubes under the lunar surface.

Data pulled from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory indicates the cavernous lava tubes, up to three miles wide, could be structurally sound with a roof six-feet thick. These cavernous lava tubes could offer lunar explorers protection from the harsh conditions on the moon and enable humanity to establish the first lunar base, science consultant Andrew Daga told National Geographic.

“Nothing that we can build on the surface using reasonably available technologies could provide the same protection as the interior of a lava tube.”

Entrances to the lunar lava caves, known as skylights, were first photographed by the Japanese spacecraft Kaguya in 2009 and indicate the presence of underground caves, aerospace researcher Junichi Haruyama told National Geographic.

“Lava tubes … provide ready-made protection from the harsh lunar environment: meteorite bombardment, radiation from space, and the large changes in temperature through the lunar day.”

The European Space Agency has long expressed a desire to build a lunar colony and international research station, which they’ve dubbed the “Moon Village.”

Scientists and engineers from across the globe would gather at this international oasis on the moon to study the mystery of deep space. The ESA is exploring various 3D printing construction methods that utilize components of the lunar soil to build the lunar base.

Russia, China, and the ESA all are planning to return to the moon with rovers and astronauts in order to explore the lunar surface and establish a base of operations, which could be used to coordinate research and commercial efforts.

Discussion is underway at the international level to build a space station in orbit around the moon to coordinate lunar research and mining efforts in conjunction with the developing cislunar economy.

NASA also has plans to return to the moon, but only as a proving ground for an eventual manned Mars mission sometime in the 2030s. As part of their Journey to Mars agenda, the national space agency plans to land rovers on the lunar surface and experiment with 3D printing technology.

There are also several commercial companies looking to establish a presence on the lunar surface. Resources extracted from the moon and within passing asteroids promise to be a potential windfall to the companies who can successfully extract them. Boosting cargo up from Earth is prohibitively expensive with each pound of material costing several thousand dollars to launch into space.

Material mined from space rocks, however, including water in the form of ice, which can be used as rocket fuel, can be used in orbit at a much lower cost.

What do you think about using lunar lava caves to build humanity’s first moon base?

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