{"id":95625,"date":"2019-08-31T00:22:26","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T07:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/seeking-innovative-ideas-for-exploring-lunar-caves"},"modified":"2019-08-31T00:22:26","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T07:22:26","slug":"seeking-innovative-ideas-for-exploring-lunar-caves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/seeking-innovative-ideas-for-exploring-lunar-caves","title":{"rendered":"Seeking innovative ideas for exploring lunar caves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/seeking-innovative-ideas-for-exploring-lunar-caves.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Caves on the #Moon? This is a 100 m deep pit in the Sea of Tranquility, potentially an entrance to a tunnel system. We\u2019re seeking innovative ideas for how to explore #lunar caves, via the Open Space Innovation Platform \ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Preparing_for_the_Future\/Discovery_and_Preparation\/Seeking_innovative_ideas_for_exploring_lunar_caves\">http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Preparing_for_the_Future\/D\u2026unar_caves<\/a> (\ud83d\udcf7 NASA\/GSFC\/Ariz. State Univ.) <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>How would you design a system to detect, map and explore caves on the Moon? Our <a href=\"https:\/\/ideas.esa.int\/servlet\/hype\/IMT?documentTableId=45087583371818598&userAction=Browse&templateName=&documentId=d5e1d96887b7644587a60ba84f549af3\">latest hunt for ideas<\/a> is seeking novel initiatives that address this question.<\/p>\n<p>While the surface of the Moon has been well-documented with cameras on board several satellite missions, relatively little is known about the presence and nature of subsurface cavities. In volcanic areas of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lunar_mare\">lunar maria<\/a>, planetary geologists have identified pits that could be related to the collapse of cavities such as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lava_tube\">lava tubes<\/a> \u2013 where lava once flowed under the lunar surface.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExploring and mapping these tubes could provide new information about the Moon\u2019s geology, but they could also be an interesting option as long-term shelter for future human visitors to the Moon,\u201d explains Franceso Sauro, Director of ESA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration\/Caves\/What_is_Pangaea\">PANGAEA<\/a> planetary geology astronaut training. \u201cThey would shield astronauts from cosmic radiation and micrometeorites and possibly provide access to icy water and other resources trapped underground.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caves on the #Moon? This is a 100 m deep pit in the Sea of Tranquility, potentially an entrance to a tunnel system. We\u2019re seeking innovative ideas for how to explore #lunar caves, via the Open Space Innovation Platform \ud83d\udc49 http:\/\/www.esa.int\/Our_Activities\/Preparing_for_the_Future\/D\u2026unar_caves (\ud83d\udcf7 NASA\/GSFC\/Ariz. State Univ.) How would you design a system to detect, map and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1965,2028],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","category-satellites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}