efaardvark

@Wedgy I read a science fiction story way, way back in the late 70s or early 80s.  It was actually a series of “hard” sf short stories, many brutal in fact, about the difficulties of building and maintaining a Lunar colony.  In among the stories about all the different ways to die, the difficult logistics, the politics, and the economics, there was a story about a huge underground cavern that  was described as an old magma chamber 1000s of feet in rough diameter.  Patched to be airtight and filled with atmosphere it was the setting for a largish settlement.  The story was full of insight and wonder, but the bit that stuck with me was the way the dwellings were arranged.  There were a number of “traditional” buildings laid out on the ground in the center of the area, but most of the people actually lived in “pigeonholes” drilled into the sides of the chamber.  There was a road and a system of cranes and elevators that serviced the dwellings, but mostly these were only used for freight.  The people themselves mainly traveled via personal wingsuits.. light-duty suits were self-powered by the muscles of the person wearing them to enable human-powered flight in the low lunar gravity.  There were also heavy-duty suits with small electric ducted fans that acted like small jet engines for speed or to carry light payloads.  And of course there were sport versions.  I’d pay some serious cash for a vacation in a place like that.