A U.S. intelligence agency document proposed digging a tunnel through the Moon to search for a mysterious material that might make spacecraft easier to propel.
The proposal sounds like a space-mining scheme, but it was part of a highly theoretical discussion. The document considered whether such a material could exist and whether it might help spacecraft move with less energy. The first approach was judged beyond the reach of existing technology. The second led to the Moon.
Who Examined the Idea?
The document was written in 2011 by an employee who helped prepare reference materials for the intelligence agency. The author’s name does not appear in the available version. The document was intended to compile information on a particular subject, not present new research.
It was part of a series of documents that covered supporting topics as well as space systems. The idea’s appearance in a government document does not mean the agency planned to start digging. It was an attempt to examine a remote possibility.
Two Ways to Search for the Material
The document called the material “negative mass,” a theoretical concept involving matter with properties opposite those of ordinary matter. It described a pair of ordinary matter and negative mass that might accelerate together without expending energy. In theory, that property could make travel through space much easier.
One way to obtain the material would be to try to create it or separate it from ordinary matter. That would require fields or energies beyond what current technology can produce. The document said this approach was impractical.
The second approach was to search for places where nature might already have separated the material. The author suggested examining the Moon’s center, where gravity pulls matter inward. He thought it might be possible to reach it by digging a tunnel, unlike the center of Earth, where heat and pressure are too high.
What We Still Don’t Know
It is not known whether negative mass exists in nature, whether it can be separated from ordinary matter, or whether it can propel spacecraft. The document rests on a long chain of unproven assumptions and offers no evidence that the material is on the Moon.
A tunnel through the Moon, with perhaps a material at the far end that has yet to be shown to exist.
