Why NASA Wants to Send a Laser-Powered Drone Into Caves Beneath the Moon

There were caves beneath the Moon’s surface. NASA wants to fly some laser drones all up in them to find out what’s going on in there, and it expressed this desire by awarding a $175,000 preliminary research grant to Austin, Texas-based Stone Aerospace Inc. According to NASA, the project could become the first mission designed to explore caves on another world. That’s a bigger deal than it sounds because scientists think lunar lava tubes can stretch for hundreds of meters across, making some of them roughly 1,000 times larger than volcanic tunnels on Earth. They’re also naturally shielded from radiation by thick layers of rock, a fact that really stirs excitement in people who want to build settlements on the moon.

Source: vice.com