NASA Backs Wild Plan for a Laser-Powered Drone to Explore Giant Caves Below the Moon’s Surface
Just under the surface of the Moon, subterranean caverns stretch out thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) in diameter—some as much as 1,000 times more vast than similar lava tubes carved out by volcanic activity here on Earth. The U.S. space agency announced that it will fund research by Austin-based Stone Aerospace, Inc. to develop a tethered lunar-spelunking drone—powered via laser light that will be beamed through a system of fiber optic cables conjoining it to a lunar rover on the Moon’s surface. As part of the proposed Lunar Underground eXplorer (LUX) mission, Stone Aerospace’s hovering robotic explorer will descend into the Mare Tranquillitatis lunar skylight, a yawning chasm about the size of two football fields roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) away from where Apollo 11 landed.
- ▪Just under the surface of the Moon, subterranean caverns stretch out thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) in diameter—some as much as 1,000 times more vast than similar lava tubes carved out by volcanic activity here on Earth.
- ▪The U.S. space agency announced that it will fund research by Austin-based Stone Aerospace, Inc. to develop a tethered lunar-spelunking drone—powered via laser light that will be beamed through a system of fiber optic cables conjoining it t
- ▪As part of the proposed Lunar Underground eXplorer (LUX) mission, Stone Aerospace’s hovering robotic explorer will descend into the Mare Tranquillitatis lunar skylight, a yawning chasm about the size of two football fields roughly 250 miles
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| Original publisher | Gizmodo |
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| Publication time | Tue, 04 Aug 2026 13:45:52 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-08-04T13:50:41.429Z |
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Just under the surface of the Moon, subterranean caverns stretch out thousands of feet (hundreds of meters) in diameter—some as much as 1,000 times more vast than similar lava tubes carved out by volcanic activity here on Earth. Scientists have long schemed about refurbishing these lunar caves into sites for exploratory bases on the Moon, given the caves’ natural protection from cosmic radiation beneath thick layers of regolith and cooled…
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