The Nāhuku lava tube in Hawaii is an example of the caves and tunnels thought to exist on the moon. Credit: NPS/D. Boyle

Moon Caves Eyed for Lunar Living

Newly discovered lava tubes, tunnels and caves on the moon could support human colonies, proponents say

If humans are ever to live on the moon, where there’s no atmosphere and no protective magnetic field, they’d have to deal with incoming space rocks and tiny meteors that would hammer the surface, solar storms that’d blitz exposed electronic equipment, and deadly temperatures that swing from frigid to frying.

One solution that’s long been mulled would be a full-circle act for humanity: Live in subsurface caves or tunnels.

Until now, evidence for such underground hovels has involved tantalizing photographs of more than 200 deep, dark, mysterious vertical pits. Scientists have speculated that the pits could be connected to networks of miles-long tunnels and gargantuan underground caverns as big as a small city, and in some cases 30 stories down.

The so-called Sea of Tranquility pit, whose boulder-strewn floor is in partial shadow, is now said to be connected to a long underground cave or tunnel. It sits about 230 miles from where humans first landed on the moon. Credit: NASA/Goddard/ASU/LRO

A new analysis indicates one of those pits, a gaping hole in the moon 328 feet (100 meters) deep and roughly the same diameter, is connected to a cave or tunnel at least twice as long as a basketball court, possibly many miles long, the…