Thirty mile cave on the Moon?
A new analysis of data from Japan’s Kaguya lunar orbiter suggests that one of the cave pits it found could be an entrance to a lava tube 30 miles long.
In 2009, the Kaguya probe found a large shaft with an opening about 50 meters in diameter in the Marius Hills area. The shaft descends about 50 meters beneath the surface.
The JAXA team analyzed data obtained from a lunar radar sounder on the probe that indicated an underground structure extended west from the shaft. The study confirmed that the cavern, likely created by volcanic activity, has not collapsed, and there is the possibility of ice or water existing in rocks within the cave, the team said.
Do a search on Behind the Black using the search terms “cave” and “moon” and you will see many images of this pit, taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as a follow-up to the Kaguya mission.
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A new analysis of data from Japan’s Kaguya lunar orbiter suggests that one of the cave pits it found could be an entrance to a lava tube 30 miles long.
In 2009, the Kaguya probe found a large shaft with an opening about 50 meters in diameter in the Marius Hills area. The shaft descends about 50 meters beneath the surface.
The JAXA team analyzed data obtained from a lunar radar sounder on the probe that indicated an underground structure extended west from the shaft. The study confirmed that the cavern, likely created by volcanic activity, has not collapsed, and there is the possibility of ice or water existing in rocks within the cave, the team said.
Do a search on Behind the Black using the search terms “cave” and “moon” and you will see many images of this pit, taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as a follow-up to the Kaguya mission.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
What is a good material to line the tunnels with and would they require structural reinforcement? Could anything needed to fix up the tunnels be manufactured on the Moon or would it have to be shipped from Earth or someplace else?
Seems like a project for Western Mappers; one sixth the body weight? Too bad about the other gear required.
What will the explorers say when they get in? “We do this for fun.”
At 1/6 the gravity a hard hat should be great protection against rocks falling from the cave roof a meter above. And from further heights one has time to step aside.
Hergé’s 1950s Moon adventure with Tintin gets more and more realistic every year. Except for the nuclear propulsion, he used the BRF rocket design. And they discovered water ice in a cave on the Moon. Ridiculous at the time, but now it is happening. Although without the Belgian sense of humor.
Belgian sense of humor? I lived and worked in Belgium for a time. Compared to the Italians, the Dutch and even the Germans, the Belgians were a dour and phlegmatic breed. The normative Belgian I encountered didn’t seem to have a sense of humor.
But then, even in English translation, I could never make head nor tail of what Tintin was supposed to be all about either. Even without translation, I could make more sense out of Japanese manga. Not a lot, mind you, just more.
Tintin is about Hergé making up a story as he goes. Unlikely events make a 62 page adventure advance page by page. “The Calculus Affair” is the most intense example of that. His realism created my worldview of a mid-century Europe without the war. Although the shadow of evil rivalry is present in space exploration races to the Moon and to landed asteroids, in crime investigations and in made up countries.
I don’t know any Belgians, I’m not sure it is even a people, no more than the Spanish or British or French or Italians and on and on. They are Flams and French, right? But Hergé (French) created humorous characters. Inspired by real world people, like professor Calculus was inspired by an astrophysicist exploring cosmic rays early on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Calculus#Inspirations
wodun–
for my money, it’s going to be some formulation of ‘shot-crete,’ made with indigenous Moon”dirt” constituents and some polymer-chemistry, tailored to cure in harsh conditions.
Dick-
That, is hilarious!
LocalFluff–
“His realism created my worldview of a mid-century Europe without the war.”
–That, makes perfect sense to me!
Not a big fan of Tintin myself, although I have a collected-works of his, somewhere in the house.
Georges Remi, a Belgian, drew and wrote TinTin under the name Herge. It was the most popular indigenous comic in Europe.)
For an extensive bio & examples of his art, see:
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/h/herge.htm
pivoting—
has anyone read the series “Maus” by Art Spiegelman?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus
-very powerful presentation
“It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The work employs postmodern techniques and represents Jews as mice and other Germans and Poles as cats and pigs.”