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WHAT READERS SHOULD WATCH

• NASA says astronauts are headed back to the lunar surface in 2028, with a permanent Moon Base now an official agency objective.
• A Pentagon paper in the 6th UAP release examined tunneling through the Moon while searching for hypothetical negative matter.
• Apollo impacts really did make the Moon “ring” for nearly an hour, but NASA scientists say that does not mean the Moon is hollow.

By Samuel López | USA Herald

Days after USA Herald reported on a Pentagon study containing a section titled “Making a Tunnel through the Moon,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was in Huntington Beach talking about a permanent human foothold on the Moon. USA Herald’s September 27 report examined the DIA document after its release as part of the Pentagon’s sixth UAP tranche.

NASA’s Pacific Airshow materials say the agency plans to return astronauts to the lunar surface in 2028 and build a permanent Moon Base. Isaacman has described a phased outpost supporting science and technology needed for eventual human missions to Mars. NASA has separately made development of a Moon Base and lunar nuclear power official agency priorities.

That makes the Pentagon document worth another look.

The 2011 Defense Intelligence Agency paper, Negative Mass Propulsion, was theoretical research—not a NASA construction plan. But it explored whether hypothetical negative matter could collect deep inside the Moon’s gravitational potential and included a section called ‘Making a Tunnel through the Moon.’ The paper even calculated a thermonuclear-scale excavation concept.

There is no evidence NASA’s current Moon Base program came from that DIA study. Yet tunneling beneath the lunar surface is not nearly as exotic as it sounds.

NASA researchers studied underground lunar bases decades ago. A 1988 technical study described a “subselenean tunneler” that could melt through lunar material, form glass-lined tunnels and place crews underground to reduce radiation exposure and extreme temperature swings. Those remain practical problems for any long-duration lunar settlement.

Then there is the Apollo-era fact that has fueled speculation for decades.

After Apollo 12’s lunar module ascent stage was deliberately crashed into the Moon, seismometers recorded vibrations for roughly 55 minutes. Later impacts produced similar long reverberations. Scientists famously described the Moon as “ringing like a bell.”

That phrase helped feed the hollow Moon theory. But the seismic evidence does not show a giant empty shell. NASA explains the long ringing through the Moon’s extremely dry, heavily fractured geology, which allows seismic energy to scatter and persist far longer than it typically does on Earth. NASA scientists have compared the effect more closely to a gong. Modern measurements describe the Moon as a layered body with a crust, mantle and core.

Humanity’s first permanent extraterrestrial settlement will eventually move underground because lunar rock may provide some of the best shielding available. That possibility is becoming practical.

On September 30, NASA selected three new scientific investigations specifically intended to support its Moon Base program near the lunar south pole. Nuclear surface power is also part of the long-term architecture.

Returning astronauts by 2028 remains an aggressive schedule, dependent on launch vehicles, lunar landers, life-support systems and repeated successful missions. Building something permanent will be harder.

But the language has changed. The United States is no longer talking only about visiting the Moon. It is talking about staying there—and eventually, staying may mean going beneath it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Samuel López is a reporter and news correspondent for USA Herald who has reported for the publication since 2022. With more than two decades of experience in the legal sector analyzing complex records, litigation and government documents, López brings that same document-driven approach to aerospace, national-security and emerging-technology reporting—separating what official records establish from the theories and questions those records may raise.

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