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> If the scientists' gravity analyses are correct, the lava tube near Marius Hills could easily house a large U.S. city such as Philadelphia https://www.nbcnew

• wolfram74 4y ago
  which would be a bit excessive for a 10 person base, yes?
• bell-cot 4y ago
  Looking at that article...it appears to show Philadelphia being a mere 1km or so wide. Vs. Wikipedia says that Philadelphia is >350 sq. km. Even if that's not horribly wrong (maybe they figure that New Philly, on the moon, will be a ~1km x ~350km strip?), they still show the bottom of the lava tube being 3km or so below the lunar surface. The moon's gravity may be weak...but just building a few 3km-tall freight elevators, to provide minimal transport to/from the surface, would be a huge infrastructure project. Vs. "Philadelphia" suggests that you'd have ~1.6 million people living down there. And are they figuring that the city will have it's own pressure dome(s), totaling ~350 sq. km., to hold the air in? At some point, the ideas start to sound like "wouldn't it be great to build a thousand-square-mile tropical island, in this spot where the ocean is only 3 miles deep?" Sure, if you know somebody who'll give you ~5,000 cubic miles of good rock, delivers cheap, and there's no "asteroid impact" in the fine print.