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Discovery of 50km Cave Raises Hopes For Human Colonisation of Moon (theguardian.com)
New submitter Zorro shares a report: Scientists have fantasised for centuries about humans colonising the moon. That day may have drawn a little closer after Japan's space agency said it had discovered an enormous cave beneath the lunar surface that could be turned into an exploration base for astronauts. The discovery, by Japan's Selenological and Engineering Explorer (Selene) probe, comes as several countries vie to follow the US in sending manned missions to the moon. Using a radar sounder system that can examine underground structures, the orbiter initially found an opening 50 metres wide and 50 metres deep, prompting speculation that there could be a larger hollow. This week scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) confirmed the presence of a cave after examining the hole using radio waves. The chasm, 50km (31 miles) long and 100 metres wide, appears to be structurally sound and its rocks may contain ice or water deposits that could be turned into fuel, according to data sent back by the orbiter, nicknamed Kaguya after the moon princess in a Japanese fairytale. Jaxa believes the cave, located from a few dozen metres to 200 metres beneath an area of volcanic domes known as the Marius Hills on the moon's near side, is a lava tube created during volcanic activity about 3.5bn years ago.
...die together - when the whole thing collapses
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)
Who would have thought 50 years ago that we'd actually be exploring the moon one day?
This can only end one way...
Have they uncovered the monolith yet?
I think we can definitely confirm that any water will be INSIDE the rocks and will require that we mechanically remove it by crushing OR it will have to be totally shaded, even from indirect light. Water would sublime into vapor if exposed to the vacuum of space with even a small amount of light from the sun.
So basically, man will have to dig up and crush fairly large quantities of the moon's crust to get to the water therein. Where this is better than having to bring along large quantities of H2O, saving space and weight for equipment and food, the question really becomes is it worth it? Until we find water ore and prove the mining methods, I'm thinking this is a great idea but I'm not going to bet my life that it's going to work.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Good point...
However, the idea is that if we had enough raw materials on the moon, we could use them to build and fuel space craft and forego having to claw all this stuff off the ground into orbit, which is the most expensive 100 mile trip for this stuff.
It's a nice idea I suppose.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
"That's no cave."--Han Solo.
Well, the immediate plan is probably to send in some sort of rover to investigate, which should be exciting. I hope they can find a cute backronym for SPELUNK.
Someone had to do it.
Self-Propelled Explorer for LUNar Kaves?
So close...
The tricky part wasn't faking the video. The tricky part was convincing the Russians to go along with our story.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
I don't know what I'd do there, but I'd be all for moving to the moon as long as I can go outside and bounce around on the surface every once in awhile while giving the finger to the Earth.
I think we can assume that any water definitely would be in the form of ice?
The bit about water/ice being potentially present in this multi-billion-year-old system of lava tubes is pure speculation on the part of "Zorro", the submitter of TFS, and/or the /. editor msmash, who posted it to the front page. No such theory is presented in the article from The Guardian (to which TFS links), by the press release from JAXA, as published on phys.org (from which The Guardian's article is most likely drawn), or in the abstract of the actual Geophysical Research Letters article (full "text" - meaning PDF, of course - paywalled courtesy of Wiley).
Which makes that part complete bullshit, added by someone who had no basis to include it as part of TFS, other than for the purpose of enhancing its clickbait potential. Or, in other words, business as usual for the new, steadily-deteriorating /.
Damn, I miss CmdrTaco ...
Check out my novel.
Sealing it isn't all that hard.
Install primary bulkhead mounts and temporary face.
Vaporise regolith into a vapor of (mostly) glass and use that to pressurize the interior.
By default the escaping gas will condense and create a glass fill of all cracks.
Not hard, but not low energy either.
Optionally use inert gas to charge the space while aerosolizing some type of epoxy, but that will be more material intensive.
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Moon dust is so tiny and sharp that the astronauts who last visited almost died from having their suits compromised. I don't know if that's where you want to build a colony.
STOP!... Don't confuse me with facts....
The Lunar surface is a horrible place to set up housekeeping, no matter how you slice it or where you go. Underground is a bit more attractive, but still space is a cruel reality for the living, where there are more ways to die than you can imagine.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101