Sea of Tranquility Cave (NASA)
Good news for a possible future moon base. Scientists have spotted potential entrances to underground tunnels under the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon that astronauts could convert into an underground structure. These pits, fascinating for both science and future moon bases, might lead to vast cave networks.
This study examined radar images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter taken of the Mare Tranquillitatis Pit (MTP – Sea of Tranquility), a long, oval-shaped opening with steep or jutting walls and a floor that seems to continue underground. The data came from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2010.
The analysis revealed that some of the radar signals from the MTP bounced back from a hidden cave passage tens of meters long. This strongly suggests the MTP connects to an accessible cave system under the lunar surface!
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This finding makes the MTP a prime candidate for a future moon base. The cave could provide much-needed protection from the harsh lunar environment, making it a great spot for long-term human presence on the Moon.
“Lunar cave systems have been proposed as great places to site future crewed bases, as the thick cave ceiling of rock is ideal to protect people and infrastructure from the wildly varying day-night lunar surface temperature variations and to block high energy radiation which bathes the lunar surface,” Katherine Joy, a planetary scientist at the University of Manchester in England who was not involved in the research, told the Guardian. “However, we currently know very little about the underground structures below these pit entrances.”
While the pit’s origin remains a mystery (lava tube collapse or tectonic void?), researchers were on the hunt for hidden caves within it. They used side-looking radar images captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Mini-RF instrument (between 2009 and 2011) to investigate. To confirm if the bright spots in the radar images were actually underground features, the team created 3D radar simulations of different possible pit and cave geometries.
“The exploration of lunar caves through future robotic missions could provide a fresh perspective on the lunar subsurface and yield new insights into the evolution of lunar volcanism,” the researcher wrote in a paper published in Nature Astronomy. “Furthermore, direct exploration could confirm the presence of stable subsurface environments shielded from radiation and with optimal temperature conditions for future human utilization.”
