Space

Moon caves may offer year-round jeans-and-jacket temperatures

Scientists have measured the temperature in a moon pit in the Mare Tranquillitatis, and found it to be quite comfortable
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Scientists have measured the temperature in a moon pit in the Mare Tranquillitatis, and found it to be quite comfortable
NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

The Moon isn’t the most hospitable place, but that’s not stopping NASA from sending humans back there soon. Thankfully, an orbiter has now found a region of the Moon with year-round jeans-and-jacket weather – underground caves.

The lunar surface isn’t exactly a prime vacation spot. It’s a pockmarked desert drier than anywhere on Earth, coated in clingy dust that cuts like fiberglass, and exposed to extreme radiation, micrometeorite showers, and wild temperature swings between 127 °C (260 °F) during the day and -173 °C (-280 °F) at night.

A few years ago, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spotted promising refuge for future lunar explorers – deep pits in the surface that seem to lead down into caves and lava tubes. These could be big enough to hold entire cities, or even Noah’s-Ark-like backups of plant and animal specimens.

These caverns would naturally provide shelter from the radiation and micrometeorite bombardments – and now, new evidence shows they could stabilize the temperature too. NASA scientists used data from Diviner, the thermal camera onboard the LRO, to measure the temperature inside one of these pits, a 100-meter-deep (328-ft) hole in a region known as the Mare Tranquilitatis.

The team found that within the area permanently bathed in shadow, the temperature only changed very slightly over the course of the long lunar day, centering on the comfortable springtime temperature of around 17 °C (63 °F). A person could essentially hang out there wearing just a light jacket.

Of course, any future Moon bases would have pretty careful climate control anyway, but it’s nice to know that perhaps those systems wouldn’t have to work as hard as we thought. The find builds the case for these caves playing a crucial role in humanity’s return to the Moon, which NASA is shooting for as early as 2024.

“Humans evolved living in caves, and to caves we might return when we live on the Moon,” said David Paige, co-author of the study.

The research was published in the journal Geophysical Review Letters.

Source: NASA

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6 comments
NMBill
No way is NASA going to return to the mon by 2024. And it gives me no pleasure to say so.
Doug Lough
Huge waste of time and resources. It’s obvious that we will never have regular domestic civilization on the moon. So the only reason for habitating the sphere is for mining or military applications, neither of which is practical or cost effective.
PAV
I'd like to see energy extracted from the huge temperature differences between night and day to power the cave dwellers habitat
NAAP51STANG
They CAN'T go back to the moon...didn't everyone see "Transformers-Dark of the Moon"? LOL
I sometimes have to do work in a reused limestone cave complex that is 4 miles by 3 miles wide.
Roads, stop signs, everything. It's a comfortable 67 degrees year round. Once you get under so
far, the temperature stays moderate. Although on the moon, they would obviously have to pump
in Oxygen.
Dark Dove
Unless, there is a commercial purpose like mining, I don't see the reason for going. I rather see new commercial space stations, asteroid mining (which would include moon like living, if you needed a few people along with mining droids). Ultimately, I rather see Halo like rotating green space ships that can one day escape our Galaxy in 4 billion years as our sun explodes and Andromeda collides with the Milky Way creating a new Galaxy from what is left. Mars is worse than hell with low gravity, radiation, hostile dusty and rusty environment and huge cost. Why would anyone want to live there or have kids that can't go to earth or outside on a dead desert planet?! Maybe, a Mars hotel and Space Station but not a Mars colony unless terraformed big time.
Adrian Akau
US probably wants it for the military so the Russians or Chinese cannot claim it.