NASA has selected a science suite called GIMLI to be deployed at the Marius Hills Pit and test from the surface whether the pit opens into a lava tube.
GIMLI to be deployed at the Marius Hills Pit
Old Zone member Ainz wrote this post and link about the site back in 2009:
More on Lunar Skylight (habitablezone.net)
I wrote a post about a similar lava tube spotted about 230 miles away in 2022.
NASA (habitablezone.net)
On September 30, 2026 NASA named GIMLI as one of three payload suites chosen under its PRISM program for the Moon Base effort. No launch date or lander vendor have been named yet.
The pit lies in the Marius Hills, an ancient volcanic region . The Lunar Radar Sounder on Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft reported echoes near the pit that it interpreted as an intact lava tube, and candidate tube sites line up with mass deficits in gravity maps from the GRAIL spacecraft. GIMLI will allow us to determine definitely if this is a lave tube, its size and where it goes.
This discovery could have a huge effect on decisions about manned lunar base locations. Natural, ready-made shelters that provide thermal stability and shielding from radiation and micrometeors would be enormously useful. (Obviously it will require a lot of debris removal and construction to make it suitable over a long period of time, but so would a surface moon base.) Further, because the Moon has only 1/6 earth’s gravity, and no atmospheric weathering, structural limits for lava tubes are vastly different. Lunar subterranean voids are on a vastly grander scale (some are estimated at 100km or more) and far more stable than terrestrial lava tubes.
There are about 300 volcanic cones in the Marius Hills region. This is a mission I really look forward to following!
Space/Science » NASA Shows Renewed Interest in Lunar Lava Tubes
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Written by BuckGalaxy on , and edited 2 times since. Newest first.
NASA has selected a science suite called GIMLI to be deployed at the Marius Hills Pit and test from the surface whether the pit opens into a lava tube.
GIMLI to be deployed at the Marius Hills Pit
Old Zone member Ainz wrote this post and link about the site back in 2009:
More on Lunar Skylight (habitablezone.net)
I wrote a post about a similar lave tube spotted about 230 miles away in 2022.
NASA (habitablezone.net)
On September 30, 2026 NASA named GIMLI as one of three payload suites chosen under its PRISM program for the Moon Base effort. No launch date or lander vendor have been named yet.
The pit lies in the Marius Hills, an ancient volcanic region . The Lunar Radar Sounder on Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft reported echoes near the pit that it interpreted as an intact lava tube, and candidate tube sites line up with mass deficits in gravity maps from the GRAIL spacecraft. GIMLI will allow us to determine definitely if this is a lave tube, its size and where it goes.
This discovery could have a huge effect on decisions about manned lunar base locations. Natural, ready-made shelters that provide thermal stability and shielding from radiation and micrometeors would be enormously useful. (Obviously it will require a lot of debris removal and construction to make it suitable over a long period of time, but so would a surface moon base.) Further, because the Moon has only 1/6 earth’s gravity, and no atmospheric weathering, structural limits for lava tubes are vastly different. Lunar subterranean voids are on a vastly grander scale (some are estimated at 100km or more) and far more stable than terrestrial lava tubes.
There are about 300 volcanic cones in the Marius Hills region. This is a mission I really look forward to following!
NASA has selected a science suite called GIMLI to be deployed at the Marius Hills Pit and test from the surface whether the pit opens into a lava tube.
Astronauts on the Moon could shelter from radiation, micrometeoroids and extreme temperatures inside a lava tube, and NASA is sending a suite called GIMLI to scan beneath the Marius Hills Pit to see… (spacedaily.com)
Old Zone member Ainz wrote this post and link about the site back in 2009:
More on Lunar Skylight (habitablezone.net)
I wrote a post about a similar lave tube spotted about 230 miles away in 2022.
NASA (habitablezone.net)
On September 30, 2026 NASA named GIMLI as one of three payload suites chosen under its PRISM program for the Moon Base effort. No launch date or lander vendor have been named yet.
The pit lies in the Marius Hills, an ancient volcanic region . The Lunar Radar Sounder on Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft reported echoes near the pit that it interpreted as an intact lava tube, and candidate tube sites line up with mass deficits in gravity maps from the GRAIL spacecraft. GIMLI will allow us to determine definitely if this is a lave tube, its size and where it goes.
This discovery could have a huge effect on decisions about manned lunar base locations. Natural, ready-made shelters that provide thermal stability and shielding from radiation and micrometeors would be enormously useful. (Obviously it will require a lot of debris removal and construction to make it suitable over a long period of time, but so would a surface moon base.) Further, because the Moon has only 1/6 earth’s gravity, and no atmospheric weathering, structural limits for lava tubes are vastly different. Lunar subterranean voids are on a vastly grander scale (some are estimated at 100km or more) and far more stable than terrestrial lava tubes.
There are about 300 volcanic cones in the Marius Hills region. This is a mission I really look forward to following!