Comments on: Caves on the Moon!

By: Orion314

Orion314 — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 19:11:39 +0000

I consider these caves to be , hands-down-, the most important places for consideration for the 1st permanent moon base. Nothing else will come close to provide shielding such as this for the hard radiation, and it is “pre-fabbed” already to go. No excavating needed. Considering they’ve been there for eons, I would think they are very stable. I would love to see a rover like the Mars Spirit go down and give us a look see. I’m sure surprises wait in abundance..

By: J Fincannon

J Fincannon — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 15:47:31 +0000

In reply to Tom Billings. Ha! No, for some reason they do not provide such a list. Perhaps they are awaiting publication of more papers on the topic. I have asked nicely though.....

By: Tom Billings

Tom Billings — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 22:49:08 +0000

One thing I could *not* find in the article was even a URL for a list of the candidate lava tube sites. Better would be a collection of *all* the pics of the sites. Surely these should be online somewhere, beyond the standard LROC pics library. Even a list of pics within that library would help. Robert Wagner is quoted in the article, and is an LROC tech.

By: David Hollick

David Hollick — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 22:07:49 +0000

In reply to Robert Zimmerman. Ah, yes, impact melting. I hadn't considered that. I had the impression that there was no volcanic activity on the moon, which I meant when I said no tectonic activity. But I could see the possibility of a "lava tube" resulting from impact melting. To go caving in 1/6 G would be incredible.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 21:31:33 +0000

In reply to Keith. Heh. My effort these days is to do as much as I can to encourage private enterprise in the aerospace industry, as that will lower the cost of getting to orbit. Eventually, that will make it cheap enough for ordinary cave bums like me to make the trip.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 21:30:05 +0000

In reply to David Hollick. Hi Dave, Follow the links to my earlier articles on caves on the Moon. Most of these caves are variations of lava caves or tubes on Earth, formed by either volcanic activity or impact melting when a big meteor hits the surface.

By: Keith

Keith — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 20:56:19 +0000

Bob – have you scheduled your cave exploration trip there yet ?

By: David Hollick

David Hollick — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 20:02:07 +0000

This is intriguing because obviously there can’t be karst on the moon. There has never been water, and life is necessary to form limestone and dolomite, negating the possibility of karst. Also, there is no tectonic activity to form caves. How can this be?