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Scientists have for the first time discovered a cave on the Moon.
At least 100m deep, it could be an ideal place for humans to build a permanent base, they say.
It is just one in probably hundreds of caves hidden in an “underground, undiscovered world”, according to the researchers.
Countries are racing to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon, but they will need to protect astronauts from radiation, extreme temperatures, and space weather.
Helen Sharman, the first British astronaut to travel to space, told BBC News that the newly-discovered cave looked like a good place for a base, and suggested humans could potentially be living in lunar pits in 20-30 years.
I don’t tend to look at the moon for mining itself, more as the port from which we can more cheaply and easily head to the asteroid belt where the money is.
Launching stuff off of earth in order to build large structures/ships in orbit is expensive as hell because of the gravity well. Get moon manufacturing off the ground, then everything we build and everywhere we go from there becomes infinitely cheaper (including Mars).
The Moon gives us the solar system. Far more than going direct to Mars ever would.
Not to mention that all the fancy technologies like mass drivers and skyhooks and space elevators are a lot easier to do on the moon.