Published : 05 Oct 2026, 04:47 PM
Updated : 05 Oct 2026, 04:47 PM
NASA has selected a proposal led by the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) to find out whether a potentially large cave stretches underground from a pit on the Moon, according to ScienceDaily.
Such a cavern could eventually give astronauts natural protection from radiation and the dramatic temperature changes on the lunar surface.
The project, Geophysical Instruments for Marius Lunar pit Investigation (GIMLI), will receive funding through NASA's Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) programme, the American website says.
PRISM sends scientific instruments to the lunar surface aboard spacecraft supplied by providers in the Commercial Lunar Payloads Services (CLPS) initiative.
PSI Associate Director and Senior Scientist Than Putzig leads GIMLI, working with Honeybee Robotics, which will build much of the equipment.
The instruments will travel aboard a lander and rover supplied through CLPS, in partnership with the Norwegian Space Agency.
“GIMLI represents the type of ambitious planetary science that PSI was built to pursue,” said PSI Director and CEO Amanda Hendrix. “Than and his team are taking a scientific question we've been studying from orbit and have developed a way to investigate it directly on the Moon.”
Scientists studying the Moon from orbit have found compelling evidence that caves and lava tubes could lie beneath its surface.
GIMLI will focus on the Marius Hill Pit (MHP), a large opening in one of the Moon's most volcanically varied regions.
Like other lunar pits, it could open into underground structures made by ancient volcanic activity. Rather than relying only on observations from above, the mission will let researchers examine it directly from the surface.
To look underground, GIMLI will combine ground-penetrating radar, seismic sensors and a gravimeter, while cameras photograph the surface and the pit's exposed walls.
Together, they will search for a possible void extending from MHP and, if found, help estimate its size.
Putzig said he has long wanted to reintroduce intentional active-source seismic methods to planetary science, which has essentially not been done since the Apollo astronauts' first seismic surveys.
Combining the method with radar and gravity measurements will give a much better picture of subsurface properties, including the anticipated detection of a lava tube extending from the pit, he added.
Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, will reportedly provide project management and build the active-source seismic system, gravimeter and cameras.
It will help integrate the instruments onto the lander and rover and, with PSI, lead operations once the spacecraft reaches the surface.
The mission could still make important finds if no cave or lava tube turns up, per the website.
Its measurements could show how the pit formed, and shed light on the geology and volcanic history of the wider region.
The pit's walls expose layers of regolith and lava flows that normally stay buried, and studying them could show how lava once moved across and beneath the surface, and whether eruptions were separated by long intervals. Underground spaces linked to such pits could also preserve evidence of the volcanic processes that shaped the Moon.
“Confirming a substantial lava tube would give us an insight into how volcanism operated on the Moon,” said Gareth Morgan, PSI Senior Scientist and Deputy Principal Investigator on GIMLI. “Lava tubes are a common feature of basaltic volcanism on Earth, so identifying them on the Moon means we could use knowledge of such terrestrial caves to better understand lunar history.”
The team also includes co-investigators from Boise State University, Johns Hopkins University, the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the University of Oslo, ScienceDaily said.
The Norwegian Space Agency will provide the ground-penetrating radar, it added.
