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A newly discovered moon tunnel

washingtonpost.com

31–40 of 188 posts

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#31
post #6

TLDR: Space nerds theorized moon caves since the 80s. Moon caves created by young moon lava flows billions of years ago found in early 2000s. Japanese space agency finished mapping a tunnel last week and found it's 50km long and 500m wide with a flat bottom perfect for building space buildings in. This is news that's breaking to a revitalized moon rocket industry with all agencies and players building their own big m…

Is there any advantage for a country to have a base on the moon?

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#32

I wonder how stable such tubes would be? No water erosion, no earthquakes, even though they must have formed at a time that was more geologically active. They could be on the edge of collapse if say, a large vehicle drove in them. Am I wrong? Just a first thought. Other than that, they could probably serve as a goal for human spaceflight, an intermediate step between walking on the moon and colonizing mars.

I'd imagine the tubes are relatively stable because they regularly (at geologic time scales) experience seismic disturbances from weak plate tectonic activity and especially impact events.

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#33
post #31
post #6

TLDR: Space nerds theorized moon caves since the 80s. Moon caves created by young moon lava flows billions of years ago found in early 2000s. Japanese space agency finished mapping a tunnel last week and found it's 50km long and 500m wide with a flat bottom perfect for building space buildings in. This is news that's breaking to a revitalized moon rocket industry with all agencies and players building their own big m…

Is there any advantage for a country to have a base on the moon?

If you ever want to do a lot in space a ton

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#34
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any advantage for a country to have a base on the moon?

If you ever want to do a lot in space a ton

Sorry meant to expand more. The fact that the moon has such lower gravity than the earth means it's a lot cheaper in theory to get stuff from the surface of the moon to orbit than from earth

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#35
post #6

TLDR: Space nerds theorized moon caves since the 80s. Moon caves created by young moon lava flows billions of years ago found in early 2000s. Japanese space agency finished mapping a tunnel last week and found it's 50km long and 500m wide with a flat bottom perfect for building space buildings in. This is news that's breaking to a revitalized moon rocket industry with all agencies and players building their own big m…

So, uh, who owns the moon, and that tunnel in particular? Is it first come first serve?

Whoever gets there first, and can realistically form a threat credible enough to defend it.

You’ll probably need the backing of a nuclear power, although off-world representation of earthly countries might not turn out to be particularly credible threats (enough to intimidate new emerging space-based powers), or remain truly politically cohesive with their root terrestrial counterparts, depending...

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#36
post #6

TLDR: Space nerds theorized moon caves since the 80s. Moon caves created by young moon lava flows billions of years ago found in early 2000s. Japanese space agency finished mapping a tunnel last week and found it's 50km long and 500m wide with a flat bottom perfect for building space buildings in. This is news that's breaking to a revitalized moon rocket industry with all agencies and players building their own big m…

So, uh, who owns the moon, and that tunnel in particular? Is it first come first serve?

“Possession is 9/10th of the law” would appear especial relevant on the moon. However the United Nations Outer Space Treaty agreed that no one can claim sovereignty. https://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2014/02/lunar-proper...

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#37
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the moon had ancient volcanic activity and thus, why is it, after observable impact from various bodies - shown in the craters all over the surface, and the sumizing of the fact that water was deposited to earth from extra-orbital impacts... does the moon have zero water or atmosphere? Where did water originate? (I didn't know how to format that question any better, so please forgive the fumbly format)

The same place that water came from on Earth... comet impacts and residual moisture from the impact that split the Earth-Moon system. Really the same place all planetary water and gas has come from. There's not much left because it mostly boils off due to low pressure, but in dark crevasses it's likely to stay cold enough to remain condensed. It's been measured spectroscopically.

Where did the comets get the water they impacted on earth?

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#38
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the moon had ancient volcanic activity and thus, why is it, after observable impact from various bodies - shown in the craters all over the surface, and the sumizing of the fact that water was deposited to earth from extra-orbital impacts... does the moon have zero water or atmosphere? Where did water originate? (I didn't know how to format that question any better, so please forgive the fumbly format)

The moon’s gravity isn’t strong enough to hold water vapor or any other atmospheric gas. It would either get siphoned off by the earth or just fly off into the solar system. The same is true of earth and helium.

Also it doesn't have magnetic fields like the earth does to shield its gas from being pushed off by solar wind.

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, uh, who owns the moon, and that tunnel in particular? Is it first come first serve?

Whoever gets there first, and can realistically form a threat credible enough to defend it. You’ll probably need the backing of a nuclear power, although off-world representation of earthly countries might not turn out to be particularly credible threats (enough to intimidate new emerging space-based powers), or remain truly politically cohesive with their root terrestrial counterparts, depending...

Or maybe the people who get there can just agree to cooperate instead and share the land, unlike how we do things down here.

One can dream.

Re: A newly discovered moon tunnel

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, uh, who owns the moon, and that tunnel in particular? Is it first come first serve?

Whoever gets there first, and can realistically form a threat credible enough to defend it. You’ll probably need the backing of a nuclear power, although off-world representation of earthly countries might not turn out to be particularly credible threats (enough to intimidate new emerging space-based powers), or remain truly politically cohesive with their root terrestrial counterparts, depending...

That checks out. There is a treaty but space-faring nations have not signed it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Treaty

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