Plans to put a human colony on the moon took a promising step forward this week as scientists in Italy revealed they've found the first lunar cave. It could be a site for a lunar base, as it offers shelter from'the harsh surface environment' and could support long-term human exploration of the moon. It comes as NASA continues with its ambition to set up its'Artemis Base Camp' in the lunar south region within the decade – but what could this look like? MailOnline spoke to experts to find out how the first settlers could set up camp on our lunar satellite and what sort of facilities it may have. Moondwellers could live and sleep in 3D-printed houses, or eventually play football on laser-cut pitches in their Prada spacesuits.

The moon is a treasure trove of valuable resources. Gold, platinum, and many rare Earth metals await extraction to be used in next-generation electronics. But there's one resource in particular that has excited scientists, rocket engineers, space agency officials, industry entrepreneurs--virtually anyone with a vested interest in making spaceflight to distant worlds more affordable. If you split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then liquefy those constituents, you have rocket fuel. If you can stop at the moon's orbit or a lunar base to refuel, you no longer need to bring all your propellant with you as you take off, making your spacecraft significantly lighter and cheaper to launch.

NASA's ambitious plans to build a base on the surface of the moon will likely be delayed. According to NASA's Dough Loverro, who oversees the agency's human exploration programs, several aspects of the project's technical design and multi-phase rollout need to be revised. One of the first changes will affect NASA's touted Lunar Gateway, a space station planned to orbit the moon and to be used as a staging point for the subsequent construction of a base on the moon's surface. NASA's ambitious plans for a lunar base will be delayed by at least a year after unexpected technical complications with the Lunar Gateway, a space station planned to orbit the moon and used as a staging area for construction materials NASA had targeted a completion window for the Lunar Gateway in 2024, and promised construction on the lunar base would begin no later than 2025, but according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Lunar Gateway is being reworked. NASA says it will still have a space station in orbit around the moon in 2024, but it won't initially be as capable as originally planned, likely delaying the completion date for the lunar base.

Construction work on a moonbase could begin within the next decade as China reveals its timeline for future missions to the lunar surface. Zhang Kejian, the administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), announced the plans in a recent speech. The research facility will be located near the moon's ice-rich south pole and will be shared with multiple countries, Mr Zhang said. Ice will be needed on the moon to provide water for both human consumption and as a component for rocket fuel. The small step of a lunar base could serve not only as a platform for research but also as a refuelling station for giant leaps out into the solar system.

Liquid water on the surface of the moon has been found to'hop' around various cold spots on the lunar surface due to a complex and intricate sequence of events. Temperatures rise during the moon's daytime and at lunar noon it is sufficiently warm enough to cause water to leave the soil - known as the regolith. It then either bounces to the nearest cold location or rises into the atmosphere before being reabsorbed. It was spotted by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Scientists say this discovery could allow for a constant supply of water for planned long-term manned missions to the moon.

NASA has revealed plans to take America back to the moon - but will rely on private firms to run the missions. The space agency plans to work with nine private firms, ranging from small startups to giants like Lockheed Martin, to develop robotic landers and systems to mine the natural resources on the moon. This will help develop the technology need for eventual manned missions, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine pledged to have a manned lunar base within a decade. The first new lunar missions could blast off as early next year. The new missions will see the US return to the lunar surface for the first time since Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final mission of the crewed lunar exploration program (pictured, Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon).

Last year's Prey was a creepy shooter and role-playing game set on a spaceship riddled with black, shimmering aliens. The so-called'immersive sim' was praised for its science fiction story, which let you shape the main character and the fate of the hostile research station. The gameplay, though, was seen by many as a retread of BioShock, System Shock and other genre classics. Despite its wild Neuromod abilities, which let you become an expert hacker, fighter or shape-shifting alien, the rebooted Prey failed to catch the public's attention. The title is far from finished, though.

Space luminaries such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have talked about building bases on the Moon to let humans live, work and play on the lunar surface. A new discovery, however, may bring that dream to reality sooner than realized. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has discovered an enormous cave under the lunar surface, something it calls a "very significant" discovery, due to its value for both science and human expansion into space. The discovery was made by Japan's Selenological and Engineering Explorer (Selene) probe and shows a 50 kilometer (31 miles) "lava tube" underground, alongside a lava flow river "rille" on the Marius Hills of the Moon. JAXA used radio waves to confirm the existence of the cave after examining the hole.

Setting up a permanent village on the moon is the first step towards exploring Mars, the European Space Agency said as plans to reach and colonise the Red Planet gathered pace. At an annual gathering of 4,000 global space experts in Adelaide, the ESA said the Moon was the'right place to be' as humans expand economic activities beyond low-Earth orbit, even while Mars remained the'ultimate destination'. 'We have been living in low-Earth orbit for the last 17 years on board a space station and we are on our journey to Mars for the first human mission,' ESA's Piero Messina told AFP at the congress. 'In between, we believe that there is an opportunity to create a permanent... sustainable presence on the surface of the Moon.' Reaching and colonising Mars has been viewed by private and public interests as the next stage in exploring the final frontier, and has been a key part of this year's International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide. Messina said the more immediate goal was to have a permanent presence on the Moon, even if it was just a robot, by the end of the next decade.

China is talking with the European Space Agency about collaborating on a human settlement on the moon. The secretary general for China's space agency, Tian Yulong, disclosed the talks today in Chinese state media. The ESA has previously described its'Moon Village' as a potential international launching pad for future missions to Mars. China is talking with the European Space Agency about collaborating on a human settlement on the moon. Pictured is an artist's illustration released by the ESA last year The European Space Agency's CEO Jan Woerner said the project could allow exploration of the far side of the moon.