Latest Update:  October 27, 1991

RAMBLING THOUGHTS by a cosmogonist, Number 22

Both Walter Clark and Aaron Imaoka asked me about the lava tubes on
the Moon. The discussion of lava tubes came about during the forum on
what to do with the excess nuclear weaponry. I had noted them and said
that they are under consideration for lunar habitat and that such
experimentation was being done on Earth. Then I get jumped on by
people who had never heard of such.

As I said in the previous messages on the subject, the reference is
from the organ of the National Space Society. However it wasn't in
_Ad Astra_ as I said. Here's the bibliographic entry:

  Diehl, Bob and Dorothy, with Walden, Bryce. "A Weekend _in_ the
  Moon. _Space World_, December 1988, pp 15-18.

Selective quotes from that article follow:

  "Natural lava tubes on the Moon could provide ready-made shelter for
  future lunar settlers. . . . it will be possible to create habitats
  without piling up regolith--Moon soil--to shield from solar flares,
  cosmic radiation, and meteorites. According to a NASA report by
  Friedrich Herz titled `Lava Tubes:  Potential Shelters for
  Habitats,' settlers simply clear an entrance into a giant lunar lava
  tube, inflate spacious shelters, activate power and life support and
  they're at home on the Moon.

  ". . . NASA researchers . . . think lunar lava tube caverns could be
  500 meters . . . wide, and as tall, with a basalt roof of 50 meters
  . . . thick, which continue uninterrupted for many kilometers. Lava
  tubes are like those here on Earth, but 10-20 times larger.

  "Lunar lava tubes are estimated to be constantly -4øF, a clear
  advantage over the hundreds of degrees' swing on the surface every
  fortnight."

Actually, I was pretty "lucky" in looking for that article. The
bookcase in which I had hundreds of magazines collapsed last week and
in the cleanup process I had just piled the space magazines together,
without sorting them. When I went looking for this article, it was in
the third magazine from the top!

             --by don rosenfield, asst. general sysop/cosmogonist
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