Comprehensive maps and catalogs of lunar lava tube skylights detected by LRO exist in scientific literature
the verdict
SUPPORTED
the evidence backs this
refutedsupported
the weight of evidence
3 sources for · 0 against
The retrieved scientific literature includes studies using Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data and identifying nearly 300 lunar pits and potential lava tube access points.
Lunar pits are small (∼10–300 m wide) collapse features with vertical walls and sometimes overhangs. We have identified almost 300 pits, mostly in ponds of cooled impact melt inside large craters younger than ∼1 billion years. Several of these pits may provide access to lava tubes or other caves, and those in the maria expose the layering record of the top 20–100 m of basaltic lava flows. We investigated the 21 known pits outside of impact melt ponds to determine possible origins, ages, and present‐day access to the lunar subsurface. We used Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Narrow Angle Camera images (<2 m per pixel) to produce detailed 3D reconstructions of six pit interiors. We evaluated the general morphology and geologic context of all twenty‐one. While four pits have contexts suggestive of lava tubes, the majority are ambiguous, although all occur in or near the maria. We also propose that pit formation is an ongoing process, as the degree of degradation of a pit is unrelated to the age of the host terrain. Much of the original volume of most pits is now filled with debris, but some exhibit significant overhangs and may have present‐day cave access. Viewing pit walls and floors, even from the rims, requires navigating steep slopes of loose material. Since the floors are also covered with rough debris piles, we recommend simple flying vehicles for initial reconnaissance.
Lunar Nano Drone (LuNaDrone) is a small spacecraft capable of performing autonomous flight in the lunar near-surface environment, whose primary application is a mission of exploration of lunar pits to detect potential openings to lunar lava tubes. Throughout the phases of this mission, the spacecraft has to deal with several thermal environments and among these, the lunar surface operations can be critical for the thermal control design. A meaningful thermal analysis requires correct modelling of both the thermal environment and the spacecraft, on the ground and in flight. The proposed modelling approach, implemented in Thermal Desktop, aims to provide a preliminary evaluation of the radiative thermal fluxes incident on the spacecraft faces throughout the surface operations and flight segments, in order to qualitatively validate the flight manoeuvres model implementation and to identify the most critical thermal scenario. Starting from temperature data of Apollo 17 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a thermal model was designed for the lunar surface and for a lunar pit, characterizing them for the Mare Tranquillitatis Pit case. A 12U test box has been modelled in order to evaluate heat fluxes on the spacecraft, exploiting Thermal Desktop's Assembly and Symbols features to implement the flight manoeuvres in the thermal model. The analyses were performed for three different local times and four cardinal directions approaches to the pit. The results showed how the modelling approach correctly allows the implementation of flight manoeuvres in the thermal model. Regardless of local time or spacecraft orientation, the results show that the most critical radiative scenario is not one of the flight segments, but the transmission phase, after the propellant has been almost completely depleted and the spacecraft finds itself in a highly radiative environment on the lunar surface.