Scientists Discover Cave on Moon: ‘It Could Host People’

A cave on the moon could provide the necessary infrastructure for future astronauts.

for the first time, Scientists Discover one cave in moonproviding a possible site for a permanent human base. This cave is at least as deep as 100 metersis part of a vast underground network that researchers believe remains largely unexplored.

In the global race to establish a permanent human presence on it moonEnsuring that astronauts are protected from radiation, extreme temperatures and space weather is vital. This newly discovered cave could provide much-needed shelter. Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut to travel in space, told BBC News that the cave is a promising site for a lunar base, suggesting that humans could be living in such lunar craters within the next 20 to 30 years.

The discovery was made by Lorenzo Bruzzoni and Leonardo Carrer at the University of Trento in Italy. They used radar technology to investigate the entrance to a crater located on Mare Tranquillitatis, a rocky plain visible from Earth and the site of the Apollo 11 landing in 1969. The crater, which has a lunar vent, slopes vertically and the walls protrude. It has a sloping floor that probably extends deep into the Earth.

Formed millions or billions of years ago by lava flows that tunneled through lunar rock, the cave is similar to volcanic caves on Earth, such as those in Lanzarote, Spain. Professor Carrer said their research included visits to these terrestrial volcanic caves to better understand the formation and potential of the lunar cave.