Back to the Stone Age: Early space dwellers will 'live in caves on planets as we make our baby-steps into the universe' - etechspace

For almost all of humanity's existence, the idea of exploring the galaxy was just a far-off dream.
But in the 50 years since we began conquering the pull of gravity and escaped our atmosphere, we have been able to dismiss get beyond the dreaming and discuss the practical ways we can settle on other worlds.
As we take our baby-steps into the wider world, one suggestion is that we, in a sense, return to the Stone Ages - and use caves as our initial dwelling places.
The idea was given even more credence in 2007 when NASA captured images of 'skylights' on Mars - showing that caves do exist on the red planet, giving us four walls, a roof, and potentially even a fairly air-tight environment to set up a new home.

Into the caves: Man is still yet to experience a cave on another planet - but they could be our new first homes on other worlds (pictured: Ice cave in Iceland)

Skylights in Mars: These two holes from a 2007 NASA survey that there are caves on the red planet - potentially our new homes?

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And in the interior: The cave, viewed from above, looks remarkably similar to caves on Earth (click to expand)

NASA's images not only showed the caves, but thermal imaging implied the temperatures remain fairly constant both day and night, making them even more habitable to our first astronauts.
Caves have also now been discovered on the moon and on Jupiter's moon Titan - meaning that in time we may make an inter-solar-system neighbourhood.

The suggestion became more concrete in October 2011 when a group of geologists, cave explorers, earth scientists, astrobiologists and other researchers met in New Mexico to discuss the science and implications of caves on other planets.
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the meeting helped discuss some of the ideas to be turned into research and then - hopefully - practical science, discussing how we could explore caves with robots, and map them with human or robotic means before moving in officially.

The lava caves in Grutas de Sao, Madeira, Portugal, already give off an other-world feel despite being in Europe

The researchers said that the field of robotics would need to move forward to allow 'intelligent' machines to make autonomous decisions when exploring, especially as the tonnes of surrounding rock and miles of cave networks would likely block communication between astronauts and robots.
The scientist also noted that caves would be good candidates for finding ice and even micro-biotic life on otherworlds.
As the Smithsonian noted: 'Although all of this cave talk sounds a bit like it belongs in a summer Hollywood blockbuster rather than the proceedings of an academic conference, exploration of the ocean floor and the moon were both predicted in science fiction before being taken seriously by the scientific establishment.
'After technology caught up with the human imagination, these ideas didn’t seem so far-fetched.
'It may take decades or longer, but it appears as though exploration of extraterrestrial caves is on the same track. What’s more uncertain, though, is what marvels we’ll find when we get there.'

Space dreamer Professor Brian Cox explores the Kverkfjoll ice cave under Vatnajokull glacier in Iceland as he wonders if we will find similar conditions on Jupiter's moons