Living In Lava Tubes

Beneath the surface of the Moon lie vast underground caverns, some of which are miles long and wider than football fields, and they may make for excellent settlement sites.
Go to brilliant.org/IsaacArthur/ to get a 30-day free trial and 20% off their annual subscription.
Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @isaacarthursfia
Visit our Website: www.isaacarthur.net
Join Nebula: go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur
Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur
Support us on Subscribestar: www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a...
Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
Reddit: / isaacarthur
Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: / discord
Credits:
Living In Lava Tubes
Episode 443; April 18, 2024
Produced, Written & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur
Graphics:
Jeremy Jozwik
Ken York
Sergio Botero
Udo Schroeter
Music Courtesy of
Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.com/creator

[@howiefuzz6894]

Lave tubes used to be a real hot commodity. Now the market is a hollow shell of what it used to be.

[@Deletirium]

I forgive you for that blatant dad joke.

[@darkhorse13golfgaming]

Get out 😐

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Damn, there's always good lines in the comments I wished I'd had when writing the script but that one is priceless :)

[@Mousse9]

You’re fired! Get out. 🤣

[@christophermullins7163]

This is serious.. not a joking matter sir.

[@MrIzzyDizzy]

from cave man to lava tube man. what a journey.

[@MrGnorts]

destiny is funny

[@seanhewitt603]

In less than two million years too!

[@thecrazycapmaster]

What can I say except, we yearn for the mines. When we left the mines we made a game about it, when we go to space we’ll live in natural ones 🤣

[@wolfvale7863]

"spaceman" is in there too!

[@PerfectAlibi1]

Lava tube man on the moon! ^^

[@jimcameron6803]

We all live in a lunar lava tube, A lunar lava tube, A lunar lava tube.

[@wynnschaible]

...with PhD Jeremy Boob!

[@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63]

"But there ain't no whales, so we tell tall tales"

[@jamesfowley4114]

​@@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63who know what lives way in the unvisited back of the lava tubes.

[@ladypiperfaye]

In the tube Where I was born Lived a bacteria That sailed the cosmic sea And he told Us of his life In the tunnels Down below

[@williambrandondavis6897]

The best art is never the most popular. The Beatles are so highly over rated. The majority of the fans back in the day were 13 year old little girls. Let that sink in.

[@GuiAntonioli]

"Let's go inside a gigantic hole inside the moon" sounds a LOT like a plot for a terror movie. Haha

[@Deletirium]

There's a recent, terrible (but fun) film called "Moonfall" that has that exact plot.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Hah, that's a good point, they really would be a natural monster-filled dungeon for a horror flick

[@coreyander286]

There aren't enough pulpy aliens based on the bird-headed skeletal humanoids from the old Melies silent film _A Trip to the Moon._ So many aliens based off _John Carter of Mars,_ but none I know of based off the bird-headed skeletal humanoids, despite their striking design.

[@barahng]

Bombarded by radiation on the surface is scarier.

[@wstavis3135]

"This isn't a cave!"

[@erichtomanek4739]

Q: Are you a Lunatic, living in a lava tube? A: Why, yes!

[@christineshotton824]

The first words of the video are a Heinlein story title. Automatic upvote! 👍

[@colinsmith1495]

And a great one, at that!

[@TarkMcCoy]

Dusting off the ancient sign besides the tube which snaked down into the darkness, the language specialist squinted and replied, "It says 'Human Food - This Way'".

[@ajr993]

I feel like Isaac is going to write a series of novels about the development and emergence of humanity to colonize the solar system

[@rembrandtshadows]

best to start as an editor of a collection fo short stories.

[@tonyportcullis488]

Totally tubular dude.

[@jburgmedia]

Totally .

[@spiffygonzales5160]

Bro this comment is so radical! Righteous man, righteous! 🤘😎

[@jburgmedia]

@@spiffygonzales5160 gnarly man ... Gnarly

[@spiffygonzales5160]

@@jburgmedia Bitchin'!

[@snaffu1]

Time for my weekly dose of positivity and wonderment. Thanks Issac, cheers.

[@josephreagan9545]

The lava tube colony on the moon was eventually destroyed. The lunarians delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of the tubes: Shadow and Flame.

[@IM2awsme]

Dwarf world or rim fortress?

[@josephreagan9545]

@@IM2awsme Mines of Moria from Lord of the Rings the fellowship of the ring.

[@IM2awsme]

@@josephreagan9545 I thought this was a dwarf fortress reference, the new update has had it on my mind.

[@rembrandtshadows]

And then the Master Chief showed up with a bunch of Skinnies and put a bell around the neck of the zenomorph. Yes, I purposefully mis spelled it.

[@UrdnotChuckles]

I reckon any lava tube settlement would need to have certain safety features like we implement in big road & rail tunnels now. Namely side tunnels for utilities, evacuation, etc. Likely pressure and fire shelters too, plus said side tunnels would need to run along the main tube to serve as evacuation routes between damaged segments. As for the surface, here's hoping we'd be able to both have enough solar & thermal / chemical storage to get through the weeks of night. Though no doubt there'd be all manner of backup systems there too.

[@arcadiaberger9204]

When my kids were listening to a *_Sesame Street_* song in which Ernie sang that _I'd like to visit the Moon_ _But I wouldn't like to live there_ I responded by writing my own version and sang it for them, in which I sang, _I'd like to live on the Moon_ _In a cavern with green plants and air_ _I'd like to live on the Moon_ _I think I could live happily there_ Just as Ernie found fault with the depths of the ocean and other locations, I praised life in the sea, in deep caves, in Antarctica, and concluded, _I could learn to love any land_ _Any place I could possibly dwell_ _I could learn to love any land_ _Even though it's some other folks' Hell_ _From a high windswept peak to the depths of the Earth_ _I'd adapt to it like it's the land of my birth_ _I could take any place for whatever it's worth_ _Yes, I think I could like to live there_ _I could happily live . . . anywhere_

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Nice :)

[@EliasMheart]

That's beautiful ❤️

[@faizanrana2998]

AAAAHAHAAAA this dude funny

[@phaedrus000]

Do you want Morlocks? Because this is how you get Morlocks.

[@mcmaldek]

But would there be Eloi?

[@anthonythijs8882]

Great post😂

[@lucasirvine4194]

Hahaha you killed me 😂

[@wolfvale7863]

Since this is probably what we will actually do on the moon, pay extra attention to today's lesson.

[@MrGnorts]

indeed

[@ZionistWorldOrder]

todays assumptions..

[@williambrandondavis6897]

Except idiocracy is real.

[@wolfvale7863]

@williambrandondavis6897 "Idiocracy", not until we abandon all hope of leaving this planet. If we give up on that, then our extinction date can be set in burnt stone. So far, we are still pushing to get into space. As we should. Be positive. That is what this channel is about.

[@ebonaparte3853]

@@ZionistWorldOrderWe’re going in a few years. Today’s assumptions are probably right.

[@aenorist2431]

As a gardener, I will add a bit of caution here. You say "a plant can undergo a period of low lighting" and then imply a cloudy week would be similar to lunar night. Now I am aware you know better, as even thick clouds let a lot more solar radiation through than the pitch black of lunar night. But for those viewers of you that were unaware: Two weeks of complete darkness are an extreme amount of stress for most plants we grow for food. Seedlings would be killed for certain, and larger plants suffer extensive damage, very likely more than 2 weeks of light can bring back in growth. All farming on the moon would rely on artificial light and (for lack of atmosphere, as plants can get sunburnt just as humans do) artificial shading as well. Maybe you could genetically engineer plants to survive it, and some lichen, moss etc might be hardy enough to survive, but default farming requires technical infrastructure for atmosphere, humidity, radiation management -> pretty much the same life support machinery humans also require.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Very correct, if I was ambigous there, I was implying low-wattage LEDs comparable to cloudy days for during dark phase.

[@NullHand]

I think aquaponics would work better. An algea->brine shrimp light harvesting setup could run a couple generations in the 2 week sunlight window. If modern "food science" couldn't convert those directly to some fair facsimile of ramen and spring rolls, you could always have a dark cycle feeding those to blind cave trout and deep sea snow crab.

[@muninrob]

@@NullHand Here's another cycle to think about: Algae to produce oxygen, sugars & bulk biomass (the latter for turning regolith into soil for later, more advanced crops), then yeast tanks to turn those sugars into CO2, edible proteins, and (most importantly) ethanol. IMO, when it comes to available food stocks, the answer isn't "better" or "best", it's "yes, please" followed by a lot of hard work to make it happen. It's going to take a lot of colonist feces & bulk organic matter to make enough soil to grow anything conventional, which we'll need in order to have bread and feed for livestock.

[@barahng]

As someone currently raising about 50 seedlings of various species under LEDs in my closet I appreciate this post. 😂

[@neolithictransitrevolution427]

​@@NullHandI'm a big fan of space aquaculture too. Also think Lobster and shell fish for recycling composts and human waste.

[@CODENAMEDERPY]

Nice intro. The first time I was introduced to lava tubes in scifi was in KSR's Mars Trilogy, it blew my mind when I found out that our moon has them too.

[@rembrandtshadows]

try robinson carusoe on mars. movie from the 60s.

[@Anthrofuturism]

A lava tube surveillance recon rover would be a fairly straightforward and useful product for a company to make (and likely to receive SBIR funding).

[@SendyTheEndless]

So the moon is peppered with holes? It really IS made of cheese!

[@wynnschaible]

But how many would it take to fill the Albert Hall?

[@marcpeterson1092]

And will be explored by Wallace and Gromit.

[@raivis2300]

Living la vida lava tube 🎶

[@annoyed707]

Ya gotta lava it!

[@gcqsopus]

Today I learned Aluminium oxynitride exists. 🤯

[@CartoonHero1986]

Your New Souterraine description is very much how the author of The Expanse described the Ganymede Agricultural Settlements. The only difference is instead of lava tubes they just tunnel into the ice and cover it over with a plastic (since the ice will burn the flesh off you if you touch it), and they used solar reflectors to give the Ag Domes enough light for the plants. In the Expanse these Settlements have replaced Earth as the system's Breadbasket that is how much they could out produce anywhere else in the system for growing crops.

[@doltsbane]

You're definitely going to need a liner or at least some kind of spray on coating. It's going to be cold in a Lunar lava tube, well below zero Celsius. Once you heat it up and introduce humidity and oxygen there will be a constant rain of rock spalling off as it expands, hydrates, and oxidizes.

[@barahng]

Excellent point and one I rarely see mentioned as well.

[@rembrandtshadows]

see my post . . . essentially, tunnels are paved over but if you had sufficient energy, you could glass the walls of a lava tube. I think a lot of techniques from modern tunnel boring would be a good place to start.

[@digitalnomad9985]

The temperature variation on a lava tube near the surface will be far greater NOW than it will be after we climate control the interior. Less than on the surface (+250F to -210F), but more than that of a habitat.

[@josephreagan9545]

If we ever do make a base in lunar lava tubes we should model the inside like the dwarven halls of Lord of the Rings.

[@timothy8428]

This!

[@brentmartin6833]

Just leave out the Balrog and Trolls.

[@digitalnomad9985]

@@brentmartin6833 We needn't dig too greedily or too deep.

[@brentmartin6833]

@digitalnomad9985 Humans aren't Dwarves but some can rival even the Dwarves for Greed. However, if most of the water ice & other riches are near the surface, we don't need to worry as much.

[@robertfraser9551]

Will definitely need structural liners. The loads applied by even modest atmosphere pressures are simply immense !! And domes on the surface will need deep hold down piles.

[@ebonaparte3853]

I can’t wait until the Ganymede episode comes out!😁😁

[@larrysouthern5098]

It always amazed me how realistic things looked like on the moonrise in the movie .. "2001:A Sapce Odyssey ".... The scene of Dr Heywood Floyds meeting gave me the scene of a place deep under the surface and almost felt claustrophobic.... That meeting was very interesting in what he had to say too.. it always made me wonder if a meeting has happened like this on Earth...recently.....

[@slo3337]

It's not truly colonized until moon war 1 breaks out 😂

[@brianramey273]

Thanks for your constant work and research!

[@robertmiller9735]

Half a kilometer? Sounds like enough headspace even for claustrophobes.

[@mrnnhnz]

Another great episode, thanks Isaac. Good info, plus I like the story element - really helps to bring the subject to life.

[@mariusbendiksen163]

I love this. Been waiting for this topic a long time.

[@dalriada842]

If the radiation levels, and micrometeorites, on the Moon would be tough on materials like domes, why build them? Wouldn't it be better to build an airlock inside the tube that was set back from such exposure? I think I'd be prioritising safety over aesthetics if I was living there. Hobbit holes can be comfortable.

[@evananderson1455]

I just want to say how much I genuinely appreciate this channel and all of the work that goes into it. I'm 36 and grew up watching the Discovery Channel when it was still worth watching.. SFIA has been in my top 5 youtube channels for years now and I hardly ever miss an episode. Thank you so much, and please never stop!!! lol Edit: There are so many unknowns that hide behind whether or not humans can have children in low gravity environments.

[@Celestial_Reach]

Thank you for doing more stories to show what the future could look like. It inspires me greatly, and i was sad when you said that you officially retired the traveler and would be reluctant to do similar stories again. Thank you

[@cannonfodder4376]

Informative with a good world-building story to go with it. 😊 Wonderful video, as always, Isaac

[@montypython5521]

I don't see this as a negative 12:45 because in the event of an accident on the surface you have zero places to go.

[@chuckjones23]

Grat episode! I can see a lava tube as a home for a base, but not a colony.

[@0p161]

FOUND THIS ONLINE "I would imagine that the main difficulty will be ataching some kind of 'bulk head' with an airlock system will be the most technically challanging part. The stresses at the transition of pressurized to vacuum will result in siginificant tension of the rock. This could result in fracturing. A rough idea of the amount of force acting on a bulkhead holding 10psi for a 30ft by 20ft lavatube (mathematically rectangular for simplicity): 30 ft*20 ft *144in2 /ft2*10psi = 864,000 lb The force concentrated around the perimeter of the bulkhead is approximately: 864,000 lb/(2*30ft +2*20ft) = 8640 lb/ft of perimeter. If the bulkhead sill is 2 inches thick this suggests a shear force per unit area of about: (8640 lb/ft * 1ft/12*in)/2 in = 360 psi. If the bulkhead were curved and set well into the bedrock, then perhaps a safe pressure tight bulkhead could wall off the open end of the lavatube on the moon. Interesting.'' People are thinking about it

[@johnjohnson68510]

Great job, Isaac!

[@Ratat0skr0]

I’m always more interested in space colonies than an actual planet side base. Once in space there’s no real need for a planet, go in whatever direction you want. Decentralize and spread out.

[@wynnschaible]

The infrastructure demands of living in space are HUGE. And it takes resources from our ENTIRE PLANET to build something as small as a cell phone! There is a certain minimum startup size for a colony, depending on its culture. An entire functioning Polynesian society could be transported on something like the Hokule'a. The germ of English society (with sooner-than-eventual follow-up missions of resource exchange projected) was transported on the Mayflower. What would such a transplant look like NOW?

[@digitalnomad9985]

Space has room and (close enough to a star) energy. But our current tech can't build stuff without MATTER. Our Moon has the same sort of stuff you would find in an asteroid, except more of it than the whole asteroid belt combined and all in one place, and close to Earth, and far easier to launch into space than from Earth. Perhaps eventually the majority of the human population will live OFF of celestial bodies. But this will never happen without an industrial Moon base first and from then on. You can be interested in whatever you like, but not everything that bores you is unimportant.

[@barahng]

Been waiting for this one since you briefly mentioned living in lava tubes years ago.

[@Kombrig_2]

Make one more step and understand that we can explore the Cosmos only INSIDE the asteroids, if we curve out it's guts, build a decent living space and construct the engine, power enough -- to move a few millions ton mass in space. In complete safety!

[@ivandemiguel8607]

I have always tried to avoid definitions such as “black doctor”, “female pilot”, “hispanic astronaut”, “gay actor”, “feminist judge” when you have to use another adjective to qualify a person beyond his profession or function …. there is something wrong going on …. I don’t need a white doctor or a black doctor O need the best doctor, when i take a plane I don’t want a female pilot or a gay pilot I want the best pilot period…..🤷 it’s easy

[@Deletirium]

You'd get tarred and feathered for daring to suggest that individual merit is the best measure of a human, rather than some arbitrary, faddish quota box filled, if we were in a more public forum. I very much agree though...

[@paperburn]

As a counterpoint, The submarine service has overcome most of your questions. Now how do we get a submarine on the moon,🤔

[@wynnschaible]

But there it would be a subselene!

[@paperburn]

@@wynnschaible LOL, yes it would!

[@alexiordache760]

Excellent, as usual.

[@GadZookz]

Pre assuming these lava tubes could be a mistake because the roof could be brought down by loud music. 🙂

[@droneee3478]

I love your optimistic outlook. As a father of 2 with one more on the way. These videos give me hope for my children's future. Thank you

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Thank you and congratulations on #3 :)

[@droneee3478]

@isaacarthurSFIA Thank you Sir, children are a blessing.

[@mastercharlesdiltardino8058]

Id kill to live in a lava tube on the moon. I know it would suck, i just wanna get away from people.

[@xObscureMars]

Careful what you wish for

And still there will be people. A lot of your time will be work and cooperation with "people" and Android robots. 😅

[@brunocesarcerqueira2525]

With a large low-gravity environment, it seems like an ideal location for artificial oceans with giant artificial waves for surfing, and giant low-gravity plants and insects. Imagine surfing in New Hawaii. Giant waves, artificial sun, giant coconut trees and other giant plants in low gravity environments. And a giant fauna of insects and crustaceans like in the Carboniferous. Giant Dragonflies and Butterflies seem like a great tourist attraction to me. 😊

[@comentedonakeyboard]

Are there any discounts if i book early😂

[@jarivuorinen3878]

I think that one way to use lavatubes would be to use structural supports to it, and support inner walls from it, effectively leaving vacuum insulation in between like a thermos bottle. And maybe having some sort of plumbing to the rock and/or to the surface for managing heat inside the inner structure. This would alleviate most dust problems, as that could only enter through airlocks, and also fluctuations in temperature of surrounding rock material doesn't affect the living space practically at all. We don't yet know anyway how dangerous or toxic local stones, sands, and dusts, are everywhere on the Moon. What we know however, is that most of the stuff formed in anaerobic conditions near surface. We wouldn't like something like asbestos inside habitats, even if stuff is chemically inert...

[@quintinkrivacek9800]

I grew up in Pittsburgh and took many field trips to the Carnegie Science Center as a kid, great memories. Best of luck to Astrobotic and their next mission.

[@theangrysmurf12]

"The moon is a harsh mistress" I am pogfacing Isaac, you cannot see it, but I am.

[@FQuainton]

As a longtime fan of Robert Heinlein I loved the opening of this video!

[@smoore6461]

I Love these story episodes! I cant wait for Isaac to write a novel!! That will be fantastic! Great episode sir!

[@timacuff332]

I always especially enjoy the "daily life" anecdotes, saying that they fertilize the plants with algae and look up at the artificial sun, like. To actually get a feel for how these colonizations work...

[@rembrandtshadows]

there are irish islands entirely devoid of vegetation until soil was greated by harvesting kelp from the ocean.

[@minhmeo9506]

A paradise for our descendants in the harsh worlds ❤

[@dansmith16]

I never thought of an actual lava tube to be anything but enclosed lava and used as heating coils beneath the surface.

[@digitalnomad9985]

I don't think they call them lava tubes till the lava pours OUT of them.

[@AFNacapella]

made _from_ lava or made _for_ lava?

[@sagethelemur]

from 🤔 and for.

[@TGBurgerGaming]

Made with lava.

[@rapallayahuma9417]

From and by

[@evensgrey]

As a general rule, if there's a way to make a permanent living in a place, people will bring family and have more there. The only places people don't bring their family or start one is those rare outposts that have no locally generated way to make a living, like isolated lighthouses on small, barren rocks, or research bases like the ones in Antarctica.

[@DavidEvans_dle]

Lava tubes plus surface silicon daises fiber optical cables pumping in sun light for lighting and growing crops - seems cozy.

[@SebRomu]

All these eons of civilization building, just to become exo-cavepoeple again? Sign me up.

[@bingusbongus9807]

one of the more ridiculous moon ideas ive thought of is driving constantly so you are always in the amount of light you want as the moons slow rotation allows for transport to keep up

[@Miguel-Del]

At first I thought this was about tunneling into a planet and using the internal heat as an energy source for your home, and living inside that tube. That would be a great video topic too!

[@georgemann3760]

So that's what the Clangers were doing...

[@jlmwatchman]

One thing that wasn’t mentioned about living in other worldly lava tubes was that Earthlings will need 1G gravity to grow a family… The needed hyper gravity infrastructure will need at least 300 meters square for one ring, ‘I am guessing?’, but a square mile would be best. In a mile wide lava tube that is on the Moon, ‘No wonder people think the Moon is hollow?’, so a hyper gravity habitat to grow children is posable and needed for colonies, ‘Adults would stay healthier in 1G, also.’

[@digitalnomad9985]

300 meters maybe, but rings don't need square sites. Once you get past gravity trains you might as well splurge and go with a multifloor parabolic high rise. If his estimate of the diameter of the largest lava tubes is correct, you could have a multifloor parabolic carousel completely inside a lava tube. For smaller lava tubes you could put the high rise in a cylinder over one of those "skylight" openings he mentioned.

[@MidwitObservations]

YEAH YEAH YEAH Happy Arthur's Day!

[@user-st8fe7iv3t]

It's gonna be a hot home for sure

[@raphlvlogs271]

can you connect lava tubes by digging tunnels allowing people and supplies to travel in between underground settlements?

[@rembrandtshadows]

exterior elevated trains I think.

[@SeattleShelby]

In the olden days, they dug the well, built the barn, and then finally built the house. And they did it in that order. Colonizing Mars (or any other planet) would likely be just as pragmatic. Shiny glass domes would likely come last, if ever.

[@Deathnotefan97]

I have literally seen neighborhoods being built at the base of active volcanos when I was in Hawaii, I think there are going to be plenty of people okay with the risk of collapse in a lava tubes

[@tetraquark2402]

A robot mission to investigate one would be interesting. I'm thinking some sort of tethered RTG powered rover with a base station to transmit back to the earth.

[@robertheidler5315]

Given the huge size of the tube#, up to half a mile wide and miles long, it doesnt have to be claustrophobic. I loved the picture with the plants, river and waterfall. It could be a beautiful landscape. And given the low lunar gravity, it opens the real possibility of experiencing one of mankind’s oldest dreams: human powered flight! Strap on a pair of wings and go exploring!

[@annakeye]

So cool to see what you and your spouse look like, Isaac. Great photo and now I can put your face and your - shall I say - interesting accent, together. In all seriousness, this is a fascinating concept and I have often wondered about the practicalities and challenges of going all Robinson Family, even if not Lost In Space.

[@patrickryckman3341]

Im sure the astronauts who have a sunrise every 90 minutes would be happy for the longer datk periods.

[@greypatch8855]

Move to the moon, for super earth!

[@malcolmt7883]

Couldn't you spray the walls with water to seal up cracks and cement loose debris in ice?

[@francoiseeduard303]

I imagine living in long Lava Tube settlements with artificial gravity mats in the initial phase of my colonization of Proxima Centauri b. Proxima Centauri may be my Pearl Harbor to Earth’s Imperial Japan.

[@ebonaparte3853]

What do you mean by Pearl Harbor. Will Earth attack?

[@ebonaparte3853]

What do you mean by Pearl Harbor? Will Earth attack?

[@francoiseeduard303]

@ebonaparte3853 Proxima Centauri is home to a Fleet Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility of Imperium. Earth better not attack. Honestly, I think at that point Earth will have become a polluted and decayed planet consisting of billions of bilious retardāres, almost insect-like in their mindless conformity, existing in the very conditions of squalor and poverty which exist today in countries such as India, Burundi, or Haiti. If somehow, miraculously, they field an attack. The Imperium will TAKE OUR MOTHER PLANET BACK and do so in a way that will make Genghis Khan look like a pacifist girl scout!!!

[@ZontarDow]

"Are they places someone would want to live and raise a family?" No, as even if we make the assumption conception is possible, it would be a death sentence for the parents and doom the children to be stuck on the moon as they could not survive leaving on anything other then an orbital elevator and could never go to Earth or any cylinders.

[@389293912]

Instead of lining rhe entire tunnel (huge requirement for strong material) run detector lines to warn about leaks or loose ceiling rocks snd deal with them on demand. Selenites might be living in those tunnels. We'd have to neutralize the Queen to stop the egg laying.

[@AnimeShinigami13]

One interesting individual factor determining whether or not a family or person settles in a lava tube could be psychological trauma. For example if someone decided to leave earth fleeing warfare. If you experienced having to watch the skies for bombs coming in over your head, you might be more comfortable underground. This thought occurred to me a year or so back when I was trying to apply futurism concepts to the universe of Resident Evil via fanfiction. And I realized that even though the scenario I came up with ended with an O'neill cylinder's worth of space on an ark ship, and a few tens of thousands of humans remaining split between being awake and cryo, (with the possibility of using cloning and mind uploading to revive even more than that), that the survivors in that scenario had just seen an end of civilization scenario that involved missiles containing bioweapons and nukes alike, as well as AI driven drones from the WBE of a madman attacking them with both bombs and nanites. (The madman was Albert Wesker, if you're familiar with that universe's lore.) And they may not want that giant cylinder to live in if they had a choice, or open sky over them, and may well give it over to the few animal species they managed to save and take with them or the surviving J'avo (a species of mutant from RE6 that really do need a lot of room compared to normal humans, see google). Even though they'd gotten safe breathing room, the people in that scenario I'd come up with just didn't feel safe in a wide open space. They wanted more rock armor melted onto the outside of their ship to carve apartments out of instead, because many of them just couldn't sleep well with open or seemingly open skies. It makes me wonder what kinds of cultures those early settlers might come from or create. If you lived through war with a lot of bombs being dropped on your head, why would you want to even think about living in a dome that could become a target? You might just put your cropland and animals in the dome and come topside for some sunlight during the lunar day, then drive your animals underground into a shelter when you go to sleep so that if you're attacked while sleeping you don't lose a good chunk of your food supply. BTW, I wholeheartedly endorse mushroom farming on the moon. Just please give me enough heat and humidity to raise pink oysters. I love them so much they're my youtube avatar pic!!! 😆 🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄

[@rembrandtshadows]

I think it would depend if you were a long term resident or a transient technician working on something for a few weeks or months. Humans are ver adaptable creatures. Personally, I would love to get away from most of the people who now have their heads buried in cell phones. I know quite a bit about algae and aquaculture and would really enjoy raising fish on the moon both for ornamental purposes and food.

[@the_primal_instinct]

Jumping inside a lava tube on the Moon could be dangerous.

[@iainballas]

I think lava tubes will also serve as emergency shelters or privately operated bases. The easiest way I can think to set up a base would be like those inflatable robots. A collapsed bag is stuck in the entrance, and as it inflates, it unrolls inside-out and fills the cavern. After that, you could stay there for a bit... or start pouring cement. Protection from radiation, micrometeors and the ability to better prevent lunar death-dust from getting any further inside by putting static filters along the entrance.

[@barahng]

Depends on the size I guess because a lot of them are way too big for just one person. Some have ceilings tall enough to fit skyscrapers and are kilometers long.

[@ciprianivan9366]

That would be so Awesome

[@nutterbutter1133]

Isaac, I've been waiting for years for you to make just such an episode! Drink and snack ready...Engage!

[@adriancastillo7657]

I think it would make sense to build a structure some kind of research station inside a lava tube here on earth to see and learn from the challenges that we face in the process before venturing out to the moon or mars.

[@nathanielacton3768]

One of the problems of lava tubes on the moon is in sealing the tunnel to pressurize it. Putting aside the problem of fissures\cracks it boggled my mind trying to work out how to build a pair of walls to section off some. Natural holes may seem like a good idea until you recognize that that's where it already collapsed, so it probably a bad place to start construction of a massive crane system to lower all the gear and materials down. It might be easier to find an area of larger collapse where the sides are caved in, so you could construct a road. It might be easier to use seismic sensors and pound the ground looking for an entirely underground tube with no openings, and bore in to it. The hard part is making martial concrete. Maybe use mud ice for the outer layers?

[@bmyers7078]

Moonquakes.

[@karlthemel2678]

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Wyoming Knot doesn´t like to be called `Why Not´.🙂

[@curtisalanmcgee]

Masculinity is adopting as much responsibility as you can manage and providing for others.

[@coreyander286]

Yes, remember women, your role is to be completely coddled and give nothing to anyone else, only take. Adopting responsibilities, or providing for others, would be rejecting the different roles God made for the two sexes. 🙏

[@curtisalanmcgee]

@@coreyander286 wut?

[@legendaryjoo3969]

Sounds like slavery.

[@legendaryjoo3969]

"Providing for others" like the Communists want us to right?

[@elliotalderson8358]

Thanks for coming to Pittsburgh. Did you enjoy it?

[@russellnolan9212]

Look, even stars will leave iron, but I heard they rang the moon like a bell. IT'S HOLLOW, MAN! Wazzup with that?

[@jamescooper5598]

If the moon is a hollow Dyson sphere, there would be no lava tubes, durr!

[@jamesfowley4114]

People hande weeks, and sometimes months, in submarines. We have enough experience handling that. We could probably make some predictions to choose the initial crews that would inhabit lava tube structures. Starting with a smaller tube that could be lined and sealed to enable moving around without suits would also help prevent claustrophobia.

[@thomaskalbfus2005]

As far as communication is concerned. Sound travels through solid rock. What if you put a ground contact microphone on the surface, the microphone is powered by the Sun and a rechargeable battery, it converts the sound it receives through the ground into a radio signal and also receives radio signals and converts them back into sound for transmission through solid rock to reach the lava tube.

[@barahng]

Surely it would be easier to just drill a small diameter hole down to the roof of the tube and run a cable to a transceiver.

[@brianbrenton1025]

Issac is so smart, next to him I feel about as smart as a potato.

[@zak7181]

I don't get to watch many SFIA videos these days but this one caught my attention, as it's a near-term sensible step in space exploration. It's not a solution for finding a 2nd home, but it's the only real solution for having a place to live for the people who'll be turning the moon into useful products for the next steps. I figure it'll go: Moon base > Moon industry > O'neill cylinders (put them wherever you need them). The industry will help us build things in a lower gravity well. I figure we could mass-drive blocks of regolith to lunar orbit for assembly, but iirc the orbital dynamics might not work? too elliptical an orbit? Anyway, sorry for the ramble. Thanks for the video.

[@mcmaldek]

I think that living on the moon is perfectly reasonable for survuval purposes... the 2 planet species concept. Apart from that it would be a good place to build bigger rockets.

[@DerekJones1081962]

I have found that it's difficult to maintain close relationships even on earth. So I often wonder why people worry so much about the psychological effects of isolation. Any introvert personality who is proven to be self-motivated would thrive in isolation where dealing with difficult people is an infrequent occurrence. Give me a task to explore and report back periodically, and I would be a very happy person. The isolation of the moon seems ideal for a person like me.

[@wynnschaible]

The experience of Israel's early kibbutzim (and the first Mormon settlers of Deseret) would be very instructive here. A sense of mission insane by the standards of 'society' would seem to be requirement One!

[@Deletirium]

Same. The appeal to me of greatly reduced exposure to humanity, combined with an entirely new environment to pioneer/homestead in, cannot be overstated. There are an increasing number of people like us- probably an organic result of overcrowding and our isolated social media age.

[@wynnschaible]

@@DeletiriumIn the constricted space of an early extraterrestrial habitat, your exposure to 'humanity' will be greatly expanded, not reduced. Under the circumstances you will need a very strong extrapersonal reason to keep up with this kind of thing. Something akin to a religion, in fact.

[@Deletirium]

​​@@wynnschaibleLol, given up on all pretense of awkwardly trying to make religious analogies out of speculative science? I'll take a hard pass on the cringey evangelizing for judaism. For a plethora of excellent reasons.

[@wynnschaible]

@@Deletirium No, I'm stating that the effort that will be required to get a settlement going as a real proposition on other worlds will be of a religious or quasi-religious intensity. Whether it will be possible either financially or technologically or in the "how bad does the power structure want to get rid of 'us'?" sense is where the speculation comes in.

[@connorgeshwiler2319]

Could you do videos about The Future of Cuisine/Food, The Future of Medical Technology, and The Future of Communications please? you are the best science channel.

[@michaelmcchesney6645]

One possibility for lunar settlements that might have many of the advantages of lava tubes while providing significantly larger spaces might be roofing over lunar craters. Such settlements could include a domed top level but could begin by roofing over a portion of the crater and then shoveling lunar regolith over that roof to shield against radiation and micrometeorites. One advantage of a lava tube this idea lacks is that it would require significantly more construction than an existing tube. Such a settlement would have to wait until construction materials could be manufactured out of lunar materials but could eventually allow for large “open” spaces that could include parks with grass, trees, and other plants under a high ceiling with artificial lighting. Such a park could be located under a dome, but domes would be much more susceptible to micrometeorites and might not be as effective at blocking radiation as a roof under a meter or two of regolith.