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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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'".

Totally tubular dude.

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

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.

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

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

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_

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

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.

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

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).

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.

Living la vida lava tube 🎶

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.....

Thanks for your constant work and research!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

A paradise for our descendants in the harsh worlds ❤

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!

Excellent, as usual.

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.

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.

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

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. 😊

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

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...

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

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.

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

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

It's gonna be a hot home for sure

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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!

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.

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.’

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

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

Next April fool's day video - living in lava lamp!

YEAH YEAH YEAH Happy Arthur's Day!

Move to the moon, for super earth!

Today I learned Aluminium oxynitride exists. 🤯

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

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.

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.

That would be so Awesome

Livestock farming on the moon or other low-gravity environments sounds fascinating. The animals would expend less energy to move, but need less muscle to do it. I think you'd get higher feed conversion rates, but it'd have a lot more fat than muscle tissue. For some reason this triggered a mental image of rabbits trying to learn how to hop in low g. The results would have to be hilarious.

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.

will we build up those random lava tubes, just to keep non-stop guessing which part collapses when under what load? or will we inflate some huge habitats with well know properties and cover them with Lunar regolith?

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

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

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.

Using the temp difference between the surface and below ground they could use memory metal to generate electricity. Someone would have to do the calculations of power to weight to see if it's comparable to solar power.

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?

"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.

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

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!!! 😆 🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄

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

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

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

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

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.

Yay a New England non base sounds wicked pissah 🎉❤

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.

Thanks for coming to Pittsburgh. Did you enjoy it?

I keep telling my daughter to become a rich lizard person and build me a mansion in a Marion cave with fluffy pigs and bumblebees

In the Future we will live in Caves but in Spaaace

I definitely think there'd be appeal. But it is most likely to be front the fringes of developed society, or from developing societies. Where to either group if the potential upward mobility is better than what they believe they could achieve on their own. To these groups it would about rewriting the stars and uplifting their and their offsprings' future prosperity. Later, a generation or two in, the classes and groups that had initially passed on the idea would open up to it, as the technology and concept were more proven. It wouldn't hurt that they'd see all the profit and opportunities that had been missed by not being early adopters to the idea. And the largest reason, in my opinion, would that the lava tube living would no longer be the wild west of civilization. The early adopters would have had plenty of time to figure out have to make the hole in the ground a home, and learned to market it as such.

I hate when my lunar robots get Covid.

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.

Awsome!

This one is interesting to me, it's totally plausible that we'll see inhabited Lunar colonies in our lifetimes.