Europe is looking for ideas for lunar cavers speleologists. Here's how you can help!

As NASA strives to land humans on the surface of the moon by 2024, the European Space Agency (ESA) wants to know more about the lunar caves that lie beneath .

ESA has issued a call for proposals asking for creative ways to design a robotic mission exploring these caves, which could be linked to the old ones underground lava tubes which has dried over the centuries and has collapsed. the the campaign is available on the Open Space Innovation Platform of ESA and ends on October 31st.

"The exploration and mapping of these tubes could provide new information on the geology of the moon, but they could also be an interesting option as a long-term refuge for future visitors to the moon," Franceso Sauro , director of astronaut training in planetary geology at Pangea at ESA, said in a statement. "They would protect astronauts from cosmic radiation and micrometeorites and could potentially provide access to icy water and other resources trapped underground."

Related, connected, related: Lunar lava tubes could make underground moon cities possible

Missions have several scientific goals associated with them, ESA explained. Future explorers will not only have to access, navigate and map the caves, but will also be able to use other resources. Some possible ideas include establishing communications between the cave and "the outside world," ESA said, while others would involve instruments to measure the cave environment.

"Mission concepts can be based on a single mobile or a distributed system of satellite, robotic or mobile systems that work together," said Loredana Bessone, who leads the hunt for ideas as head of training in analog testing. and in ESA's exploration, said in a statement statement. "In both cases, we are looking for systems that could land on the lunar surface, identify and access a cave and contribute to the scientific exploration of the moon."

The statement does not say in what (if any) this would be related to NASA's exploration plans to land humans on the surface of the moon in 2024, but NASA said it wanted land on the moon to establish a permanent human presence. Lunar caves are a possible option to protect astronauts from long-term surface radiation, although our only knowledge to date has been: images of pits identified as orbits.

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