Free Republic

The Moon is closer, always has a view of Earth, can exchange signals and deliverables hundreds of times more quickly than can be exchanged between Earth and Mars, and is easier to land on and take off from. On the Moon, solar power is a tremendous asset... In terms of the “bang for your buck” that you get from the Sun, the Moon is more than twice as efficient. In terms of the elements that both worlds are made out of, the chemical compositions of the compounds we find, and the isotope ratios of the materials present, the Moon and...

A mountain of human remains and animal carcases have been found in Saudi Arabia's Umm Jirsan, a vast underground tunnel that spreads for more than than 40 miles created by a river of lava ...Researchers found the gruesome mountain in Saudi Arabia's Umm Jirsan lava tube, which is thought to be the longest network of its kind in the country, measuring 4,900 feet long and around 26 to 29 feet. The "extremely dense accumulation of bones" was found on the lava tube's western passage...

Light and dark markings swirl over the moon, looking like cream swirled into coffee or clouds against a slate gray sky. These lunar swirls may result from ancient, magnetic lava just below the moon's surface, according to one new study. A joint study between researchers at Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley, pointed to the moon's internally generated magnetic field and past volcanic activity to explain the lunar swirls. Researchers have known for some time that lunar swirls share space with localized magnetic fields and that when those fields deflect particles from solar wind, parts of the moon's...

Pegasus Backpack, a wearable mapping solution that collects geometric data without a satellite ad synchronizes images collected by five cameras and two 3D imaging laser profilers, and the Leica BLK360 – the smallest and lightest imaging scanner on the market. In less than three hours, the team managed to map all the contours of the lava tube....to produce a 3D visual of all the twists and turns of the lava tube. The scan that resulted covers a 1.3 km section of the cave system with an unprecedented resolution of a few centimeters. Santagata and the Virtual Geography Agency also turned...

When is a discovery not a discovery? When it’s just plain wrong. or decades, the idea of useable caves on the Moon has been studied and discussed at various venues and science gatherings. Our fascination with the availability of underground planetary structures stems from the possible benefits such features may afford humans trying to live in an off-world, hostile environment. Humans are vulnerable on the Moon because it lacks the protective atmosphere and magnetosphere that we enjoy here on Earth. A thick layer of solid rock provides protection for people and equipment from galactic cosmic rays and solar particle events,...

While most people wouldn’t suspect it, the closest planet to our Sun is actually a potential candidate for settlement... Mercury’s very low axial tilt (0.034°) means that its polar regions are permanently shaded and cold enough to contain water ice. In the northern region, a number of craters were observed by NASA’s MESSENGER probe in 2012 which confirmed the existence of water ice and organic molecules. Scientists believe that Mercury’s southern pole may also have ice, and claim that an estimated 100 billion to 1 trillion tons of water ice could exist at both poles, which could be up to...

"We found that if lunar lava tubes existed with a strong arched shape like those on Earth, they would be stable at sizes up to 5,000 meters, or several miles wide, on the moon," said David Blair, a graduate student in Purdue's Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary sciences. "This wouldn't be possible on Earth, but gravity is much lower on the moon and lunar rock doesn't have to withstand the same weathering and erosion. In theory, huge lava tubes -- big enough to easily house a city -- could be structurally sound on the moon." The researchers applied known...