NASA's LRO Spacecraft Detects Promising Room Temperature Moon Lava Holes

The near side of Earth’s Moon, as seen using data from the camera aboard the Lunar robot. owned by NASA … [+] Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance orbiter (LRO) has discovered a crater hole near the Moon’s Sea of ​​Tranquility at room temperature. An LRO onboard thermal imager found that a 328-foot depression about the length and width of a football field had overshadowed an area that maintained a constant, cool temperature of around 63 degrees Fahrenheit.

The hope is that future astronauts will be able to use such a hole as a shelter from the extreme temperatures of the lunar surface that can fluctuate between 260 degrees Fahrenheit on lunar days and cold to minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit on lunar nights.

First discovered on the Moon in 2009, such holes, subsurface lava tunnels, and caves can also offer protection from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorites, NASA said.

“About 16 of the more than 200 holes may have been collapsed lava tubes,” Tyler Horvath, a UCLA doctoral student in planetary science and lead author of the paper detailing the research in the journal. Geophysical Research Lettersaid in a statement.

Horvath processed data from the spacecraft’s Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment — a thermal camera — to see if the temperatures inside the holes were different from those on the surface, NASA said.

Spectacular high sun views from the crater vent of Mare Tranquillitatis reveal boulders elsewhere … [+] smooth floor. Image 400 meters wide, north up, NAC M126710873R.

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.

“The hole’s thermal environment is more hospitable than elsewhere on the Moon, with temperatures varying by at least 63 degrees Fahrenheit wherever the Sun is not shining directly,” the authors wrote.

The Tranquillitatis Hole is located at a latitude near the equator 8.334° North and is by far the hottest location during lunar nights, the authors note.

But once in the hole, the further away from the actual hole and into a potential cave system or lava tube, the more stable the temperature, Horvath told me.

Would such a hole also protect the astronauts from high-energy radiation?

Of course, high-energy light (such as X-rays or Gamma Rays) and high-energy particles (alpha and beta particles) cannot penetrate that far to the lunar surface, Horvath said. A cave originating from the Tranquillitatis Pit appears to be 60 meters below the surface, leaving enough room for rock to keep you safe, he said.

Would setting up a habitat inside a shady lava pit crater save energy?

Maintaining the heat that humans and robots need to survive consumes a lot of energy, and during the day we can easily harness the Sun’s energy to regulate temperature, Horvath said. However, during the two-week lunar night, we must either produce it ourselves or have enough reserves to survive for two weeks, he said.

By placing your habitat in a lunar cave, you almost completely eliminate the need to regulate temperature, and it drastically lowers your energy requirements, Horvath said.

What’s next?

Originally, the research was to support MoonDiver, a proposed lunar rover mission that would descend the Tranquillitatis vent wall and take measurements of different lava flows on the vent wall, Horvath said. Hopefully, MoonDiver will be selected when NASA requests its next mission proposal, he said.

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