On 10 October, Moon Express, a company planning to make commercial landing missions on the Moon, formally tied up with commercial opportunities provider NanoRacks, which will market the service for them. Moon Express plans to start its missions – beginning with a simple orbiter – in 2018.
Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Japanese space agency, JAXA, has discovered tunnels and caves below the lunar surface. The SELENE mission’s Lunar Radar Sounder found a 50 km intact lava tube underneath the Marius Hills of the Moon. It has been mooted that such underground caves and tunnels would be ideal for protection from solar radiation if a manned-base were ever built there.
Lionel Jeffries’ Cavor character has an audience with the Selenite emperor in “The First Men in the Moon” (1964) Courtesy: Columbia Pictures
Tunnels and caves have long been portrayed in science fiction as places where lunar (non-human) inhabitants dwelled. Examples include H.G. Wells’ novel, The First Men in the Moon, in which “selenites” lived under the surface. The BBC children’s comedy series, The Clangers, famously had them living there.
