{"id":1676,"date":"2025-01-06T14:36:52","date_gmt":"2025-01-06T14:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2025-10-06T14:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T13:38:17","slug":"new-possible-moon-cave-entrances-discovered-using-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/2025\/01\/06\/new-possible-moon-cave-entrances-discovered-using-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"New possible Moon cave entrances discovered using AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Kent researcher has used AI to discover\u00a0<\/span>two previously-unknown possible cave entrances<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on the Moon which could support human survival on future space missions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Le Corre<\/a>, a PhD researcher in Kent\u2019s\u00a0School of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics<\/a>, had surveyed less than 0.3% of the Lunar surface before identifying the two pits. The South Marius Hills Pit (SMHP), which was previously overlooked by researchers, is located in an area thought to be rich in lava tubes, whilst the Bel\u2019kovich A Pit (BAP) is close to the Moon\u2019s north pole and therefore more likely to be a source of water.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These pits may be connected to underground cave networks, such as lava tubes, which could provide natural shelter from harmful radiation and micrometeorite impacts, as well as harbour water ice. It\u2019s this which makes them of interest to scientists as good bases for humans exploring or living on the Moon, and hopefully one day even Mars.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The pits were detected using an AI model named ESSA, short for \u2018Entrances to Sub-Surface Areas\u2019 and a nod to the Cornish name of Le Corre\u2019s hometown, Saltash. He trained it to scan publicly-available NASA satellite images and identify potential pits in the Lunar surface based on their distinctive shape.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The two newly-identified pits will supplement the existing Lunar Pits Atlas and could one day become a target for future space missions, or even a home for today\u2019s aspiring astronauts.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Le Corre said:<\/span>\u00a0\u2018Having combed through such a small fraction of the entire Lunar surface, I was amazed that ESSA had already detected two new potential cave entrances. I was even more surprised how SMHP was found in a previously surveyed region, and BAP was so near to the north pole. Thanks to ESSA, we can now analyse volumes of space data at speeds that would have been unachievable manually, thus accelerating the search for the pits that will be the most favourable for future exploration or habitation.<\/span>\u2019<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The research paper \u2018New candidate cave entrances on the Moon found using deep learning\u2019 is published by\u00a0Icarus<\/em>. doi:\u00a010.1016\/j.icarus.2025.116675<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Identification of the South Marius Hills Pit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Identification of the Bel\u2019kovich A Pit (BAP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Space Science at Kent<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kent has an impressive history of space research, with its internationally renowned\u202f<\/span>Physics and Astronomy<\/span><\/a>\u00a0courses having delivered leading science subjects for over 50 years.\u202fDaniel Le Corre\u2019s academic supervisor, Professor Nigel Mason, Professor of Molecular Physics, has had leadership roles in many national and international research programmes and is the lead coordinator of the\u202f<\/span>Europlanet Research Infrastructure<\/span><\/a>, Europe\u2019s largest forum for planetary sciences. Locally, he is the University\u2019s lead representative for\u00a0<\/span>Space East<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and outside Europe, he works with the emerging space communities in India and Africa.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Kent researcher has used AI to discover\u00a0two previously-unknown possible cave entrances\u00a0on the Moon which could support human survival on future space missions.\u00a0 Daniel Le … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74795,"featured_media":1677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9112,282608],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1678,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions\/1678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}