Tunnels on the Moon

[rockett]

Re: Unusual deep hole on the moon

Good idea; these old lave tubes might also trap water. But on 2nd thoughts maybe not. Heat would leak through the regolith and rock of the roof/sides of the lava tube into the cavern from the surface. They would be a tad warmer than the shaded craters which only get heat reflected off nearby cliffs.

There shouldn't be any layers if this is a lava tube.

Another fascinating place to explore on the Moon.

If you get a chance go explore a lave tube: Sicily Mt Etna, Hawaii, Lava Beds National Monument California

WOW! If the lunar tubes were that smooth, they would make great colonies!

 

[annodomini2]

http://www.planetary.org : Likely candidate for an un-collapsed lava tube

By Emily Lakdawalla

Jun. 21, 2010 | 13:11 PDT | 20:11 UTC

In February, the Chandrayaan-1 science team had a meeting in Ahmedabad, India, to share their results with each other. Indian space blogger Pradeep Mohandas forwarded me a document containing numerous abstracts from that meeting. I'm not sure that the document itself was intended for public consumption; some of the results in it may be lined up for formal publication, so I won't post the full document here.

But there was one cool little paper that I just had to write about: "Identification of an Un-Collapsed Lava Tube for Possible Future Human Settlement Using Chandryaan-1 TMC Data," by A. S. Arya, R. P. Rajasekhar, Ajai, A. S. Kiran Kumar, and R. R. Navalfund of the Space Applications Centre (SAC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). I contacted Dr. Arya, who gave me permission to post the images below -- a big thanks for those images!

A discontinuous rille on the Moon (Lunar Orbiter view)
A small segment of sinuous rille within Oceanus Procellarum is discontinuous, suggesting the possibility that part of it has an intact roof. Credit: NASA

Perspective view of uncollapsed lava tube on the Moon
Credit: SAC / ISRO / INDIA, courtesy of A. S. Arya

Perspective view of uncollapsed lava tube on the Moon
This perspective view of a discontinuous sinuous rille in the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum was generated from Chandrayaan-1 Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) data. TMC had two overlapping cameras, so produced stereoscopic views of the lunar terrain at a resolution of 5 meters per pixel. The rille is located at 58.317°W, 14.111°N. The topographic data indicates that the surface of the segment of lunar crust between the two rille segments has topography continuous with the surrounding plains, strongly suggesting that the open sections of the rille are areas where the roof has collapsed into a subterranean cavern, and that they are likely connected by a still-enclosed tunnel. Credit: SAC / ISRO / INDIA, courtesy of A. S. Arya

Would be interesting to know how long that is?

The diameter of the collapsed section should give a good indication of the tunnel diameter below

Looks like a good starting point for a subterrainian base

 

[BrianBoru]

The real reason America is not going back....someone's at home.

 

[csmyth3025]

The linked article indicates that the (uncollapsed?) portion of the rille is about 2 km long. It occurs to me that such a site might serve well as a lunar construction camp, if not a permanent residence. Any sort of permanent lunar base will, I'm sure, require a comparatively long lunar presence by ten or twenty "lunatechs" - particularly if the lunar base habitats are to be buried, as has been suggested.

How problematic would it be to land an Apollo-type mission close enough to this structure (or one like it) to get a "boots on the ground" look at it. All of this, of course, assumes that we are actually going to send a manned mission to the Moon at some point in the future.

Alternately, would a robotic mission have much chance of success investigating one of these lava tubes given the nature of the terain?

Chris

 

[SteveCNC]

If you've never been to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve you should go there sometime along with Yellowstone which isn't that far away . Anyway ironically craters of the moon is a place of lava and volcanic activity where I have heard astronauts trained at one time for the possible terrain believed to be on the moon . Inside the lava tubes themselves the floor isn't the easiest thing to navigate if it hasn't been weathered or in some way cleared so remote exploration may be difficult if it is anything like the lava tubes in idaho . On a brighter note though , inside the lava tubes in idaho there is ice even when the outside temp reaches 120f in late summer so it's hard to say what may be found on the moon for sure .

As for using one as a place to live , well I would think the location of where to live would be more predicated on other factors like near a pole where constant solar power may be possible using a network of solar arrays or near a source of mineable oxygen (after seperation of course) . We can always dig a pit the size and shape we need anywhere just backfill and cover for shielding as easy as trying to use a potentially unstable lavetube (if part of it collapsed already what's left may be ready to fall as well) . When I was in idaho several years ago my wife at the time wouldn't go inside any of the tubes for fear of collapse so my kids and I went exploring in the nice cool caves while she sat on a bench outside getting hot It's one thing to visit a tube but to me it would be pressing my luck to live in one .

 

[dryson]

Would the tunnels actually lead to the core of the Moon or would the material that made the lava tubes solidified closing the entrance to the core of the Moon?

 

[csmyth3025]

Would the tunnels actually lead to the core of the Moon or would the material that made the lava tubes solidified closing the entrance to the core of the Moon?

They would just be hollow tubes running under the surface from (extinct) lunar volcanoes or, perhaps, impact sites.

Chris