It describes him as follows:
Ben Schiendelman joined in 2007 to better consolidate news and information about our upcoming transit expansions, and to build a better base to further grow our system. He previously wrote the blog Higher Frequency, and worked on the 2008 Mass Transit Now campaign. Ben refuses to own a driver’s license.

Note the quote “Ben refuses to own a driver’s license”.

Nope, no bias there.

5 Rem per year is the maximum exposure limit for nuclear workers on Earth.

During the solar maximum, of course, radiation levels would be less than half that.

However, there is a community of over 2000 people on Earth, in Iran, that is naturally exposed to 1 to 25 Rem of radiation annually with no signs of any deleterious physical or reproductive effects.

THE HIGH BACKGROUND RADIATION AREA IN RAMSAR IRAN

http://www.wmsym.org/archives/2002/Proceedings/10/434.pdf

Marcel

The failure of a newly designed seal is not necessarily a “show stopper” and an article that says simply says “some are wondering”, then quotes only one source (“Ben Schiendelman”) as saying there are better ways to spend the money is not definitive.

A skeptical observer would wonder if “Ben Schiendelman” was an opponent of the project before this setback occurred.

I do not know whether or not this concept is flawed (neither I suspect can you). But I do know that those who try to accomplish things always have a much more difficult task than those that simply want things to not be accomplished. The latter only have to wait for a setback (no matter how major or minor) then call for the project to be shut down.

I would suggest waiting for (a lot) more information before giving up on the tunnel and certainly before assuming such tunneling techniques cannot be used on the moon.

Not easy boring tunnels. I have a whole new respect for geology after this. Does not bode well for building cities underground. If the regolith goes down a certain depth and then hits rock then maybe a technique built upon that characteristic can to be worked out.

One thing is for sure- the radiation is not going away and a way to build sanctuaries may the critical problem in any Moon base plans. As commented on before I like just putting water overhead in an impact crater but that may not work or be efficient at all.

Has there been any real work (as in money spent and research/experiments performed) done on this subject of what we can build on the Moon I wonder?

Basically what are they doing? Are trying to keep solar panel warm during night or other parts of vehicle?
It seems with solar panel you may want them not to get very hot during day or accept they become less efficient due to them heating up. And may instead be concerned about how cool they get at night- though not sure cold solar panels are an issue.

If the issue is, as reported, that solar panels keep rest of spacecraft warm, would they make a big difference. Or how much warmer would folded panels keep the spacecraft.
I understand less surface area as general rule has large effect- so folding solar panel reduces total surface area of rover. But if solar panel by itself can survive a lunar night then this is not much of issue. Instead the issue is how well does panels kept rest of vehicle warm and is this a good way to keep them warm. Isn’t there better ways of doing this?