Moon Room With a View

If you think the newly installed panoramic view cupola on the International Space Station is cool, I’ve got a room for you on the moon -- with a view. It's definitely a fixer-upper but well worth the effort.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter recently photographed a "lava skylight," a gaping hole in an underground lava tube on the moon.

Billions of years ago rivers of molten lava flowed across the moon. As they cooled they became lava tubes as the molten rock self-crusted over on the top at the exposed surface. A tube formed as the interior lava spread out. The ceiling of the tube may have collapsed to make the skylight, or the tube never solidified in that spot.

On Earth we find lava tubes in the flanks of shield volcanoes such as Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Tourists can even walk through these tubes.

The lunar skylight, roughly twice the width of a regulation baseball diamond, is located in the Marius Hills, an ancient volcanic region of the moon. Japan’s Selene orbiter first photographed the skylight last year and Discovery News interviewed co-investigator Carolyn van der Bogert, a member of the team who made the detection. I previously reported on a similar lava tube cave found on the flanks of Mars' giant volcano Olympus Mons.

What's fascinating is that the idea of subsurface caves on the moon was described in H.G. Wells' "The First Men in the Moon," published in 1901. Human space explorers encounter insect-like intelligent beings, called the Selenites, who live in a network of underground caverns. The Selenites marvel that the human eye has evolved to cope with direct sunlight. The 1964 film adaptation showed a volcanic skylight-like structure filtering sunlight deep into the lunar interior.

The real lava-tube cave, estimated to be a quarter mile wide, would offer an ideal habitat for future moon explorers. Subsurface lava tubes would protect colonists from meteorite bombardment, radiation, lunar dust contamination, and be free from the large swings in temperature through the lunar day-night cycle. At least 67 lava tubes have been identified on the lunar nearside. But this is the only one to date that is known to have a skylight.

The floor of the lava tube is about 300 feet below the skylight. It would be problematic lowering moonbase equipment down such a deep hole. Finding a sloping entrance to the lava tube would be a better bet.

This is such a unique looking feature I’m a little surprised it hasn’t been picked up by those UFO conspiracy websites that photo-interpret NASA lunar pictures as showing alien bases on the moon (those pesky UFOs need someplace to go for an oil change and tank fill-up).

But you sure can't accuse NASA of hiding anything in this photo, where LRO's resolution of just a few feet across. I still don’t see any alien footprint tracks!