Moon Cave Found Near Apollo 11 Landing Site Could One Day House Humans, Scientists Say

Humans are one step closer to building a base on the moon after a new moon cave was discovered not far from the Apollo 11 landing site.

An Italian-led research team reported on Monday, July 15, that they found a sizable underground cave on the moon which has the right conditions for humans to potentially build a base and thrive in, according to the Associated Press, BBC and The Guardian.

It was found in the moon’s Sea of Tranquility, approximately 250 miles from where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed in 1969, per the outlets.

The underground cave was at least 130 ft. deep, which means that it could protect astronauts from harsh conditions in space including radiation and extreme temperatures, researchers told the BBC. The caves would also likely provide a natural protection from other things such as micrometeorites, per The Guardian.

“Lunar caves have remained a mystery for over 50 years. So it was exciting to be able to finally prove the existence” of one, Leonardo Carrer and Lorenzo Bruzzone of the University of Trento, who found the cave using radar technology, told the AP.

Researchers believed that the cave was created by lava, which existed on the moon millions or billions of years ago. Due to their findings, scientists said it was likely that there could be hundreds of pits and thousands of lava tubes to be found, per the news agency.

Now that a cave -

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on the moon has been found, it’s likely that astronauts will start creating a base there — something that Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut to travel to space, suggested to BBC was highly likely to happen in the next 20-30 years. However, she noted that astronauts would likely need to use “jet packs or a lift” to get in and out of the deep cave.

“The main advantage of caves is that they make available the main structural parts of a possible human base without requiring complex construction activities,” Carrer told The Guardian.

He added to BBC, “After all, life on Earth began in caves, so it makes sense that humans could live inside them on the Moon.”

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However, urging caution, Francesco Sauro with the European Space Agency told the BBC that right now experts “know nothing about what lies below the surface” and would still need to map out the caves. “There are huge opportunities for discovery,” he told the outlet.

Scientists went on to note that the rock formations and other materials found inside the caves once explored could also help them understand the moon’s evolution over the past hundreds of years.

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