NASA hunts for a volcanic cave beneath the Moon's Marius Hills Pit
One of the stories that grabbed me most this week: on the Moon, NASA isn't only looking for scientific answers, it's looking for shelter.
Through its PRISM program, the agency has selected a project called GIMLI to study the Marius Hills Pit. Japan's Kaguya spacecraft spotted the pit in 2009, and ever since, scientists have suspected it could be the entrance to an ancient lava tube stretching underground well beyond its opening.
The plan is for the team to work directly on the lunar surface with three complementary instruments: ground-penetrating radar, seismic sensors and a gravimeter, to find out whether the tube really exists and how big it is. The project is led by the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) together with the Norwegian Space Agency, Honeybee Robotics is preparing the hardware, and the payload will reach the Moon on a lander and rover through the commercial CLPS program.
What I like is the practical side. A natural cave like this could protect astronauts from extreme temperatures, radiation and micrometeorites. As deputy principal investigator Gareth Morgan explains, lava tubes are common in basaltic volcanism on Earth, so finding them on the Moon lets us read its history using what we know about caves here.
The final answer depends on the data GIMLI collects, but the question itself is exciting: will lunar caves become a core part of every future plan to settle the Moon?
Details on the three payloads NASA selected are in its official release: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-adds-new-science-investigation…
Source: World Press Arabi (وورلد برس عربي)
Through its PRISM program, the agency has selected a project called GIMLI to study the Marius Hills Pit. Japan's Kaguya spacecraft spotted the pit in 2009, and ever since, scientists have suspected it could be the entrance to an ancient lava tube stretching underground well beyond its opening.
The plan is for the team to work directly on the lunar surface with three complementary instruments: ground-penetrating radar, seismic sensors and a gravimeter, to find out whether the tube really exists and how big it is. The project is led by the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) together with the Norwegian Space Agency, Honeybee Robotics is preparing the hardware, and the payload will reach the Moon on a lander and rover through the commercial CLPS program.
What I like is the practical side. A natural cave like this could protect astronauts from extreme temperatures, radiation and micrometeorites. As deputy principal investigator Gareth Morgan explains, lava tubes are common in basaltic volcanism on Earth, so finding them on the Moon lets us read its history using what we know about caves here.
The final answer depends on the data GIMLI collects, but the question itself is exciting: will lunar caves become a core part of every future plan to settle the Moon?
Details on the three payloads NASA selected are in its official release: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-adds-new-science-investigation…
Source: World Press Arabi (وورلد برس عربي)
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