Going back to our caveman roots

Journey to the Center of the Earth could soon have a greenlit sequel: Journey to the Center of the Moon.

On Monday, an Italian-led team of researchers published a study detailing evidence for a sizable cave that could one day host a lunar base full of astronauts.

The cave, located in an ancient lunar lava plain (the Sea of Tranquility) ~250 miles away from where Neil Armstrong took his giant leap for mankind, comprises an area roughly equivalent to 14 tennis courts. It lies ~450 feet below the surface, and appears accessible via the deepest known pit on the Moon.

Early humans lived in caves on Earth – and early colonies on the Moon will most likely take a similar approach. Building lunar habitats from scratch would be more time-consuming and challenging than just reinforcing cave walls to prevent a collapse, the researchers say.

Caves also provide protection from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and the harsh lunar surface, which reaches temps of 260° F during the day and minus 280° F at night. 

• Temps in hundreds of the Moon’s pits and caves stay at roughly 63° F (tanktop weather for Midwesterners), according to research from 2022.

👀 Looking ahead… Future babies may very well be able to say to their ancestors: “you merely adopted the dark, I was born into it.” NASA, as part of the Artemis program, is planning to build a lunar habitat on the Moon sometime in the 2030s.