Biosphere 2 showed that we still have a lot to learn about a truly balanced ecology but we can certainly make a forced system. Probably with algae in bioreactors and with chemical processes as a backup. The Moon brings additional problems as low gravity interferes with fluid transport in more complex plants so food may also have to be based on algae but perhaps more palatable substances could be synthesized from it. The low gravity also brings many health problems and centrifuges would be required so inhabitants can periodically exercise in high gravity. Of course this is all technology and would cost trillions to establish. It really isn't feasible for current funding methods to fund such an exercise.
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Trillions of dollars.
Far more than Earth can afford.
You do realise that it took a launch vehicle weighing over five hundred tons to land a one ton payload on Mars, and even that cost over two billion dollars?
Now multiply that by the thousands of tons needed for a "closed ecological system".
I rest my case.
Cheers!
Far more than Earth can afford.
You do realise that it took a launch vehicle weighing over five hundred tons to land a one ton payload on Mars, and even that cost over two billion dollars?
Now multiply that by the thousands of tons needed for a "closed ecological system".
I rest my case.
Cheers!
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Of course it's possible. The lunar modules which landed on the moon supported life for a very short period of time. But you have to bring everything you will every need to live including oxygen, food, water. It's cost prohibited to do it on any large scale.
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It's hard to say. It seems impossible in both cases. I don't see a way for the moon to be self-sustainable. Neither do I see a way on Mars (too much radiation). So it's not so much a problem of money--it's just not possible. Currently, what we spend towards research like this is pretty small, somewhere less than like 0.1% of GDP (The US budget is a couple trillion and we spend a few billion on space research).
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Not based on any form of Earth life. The period of sunlight on the Moon is about 336 hours followed by about the same of darkness. No Earth based plant is likely to survive that.
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It would cost probably as much as the world GDP, and it is possible if some of the richer countries united and worked collaboratively.
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That depends on the grandness of the ecosystem. An ecosystem similar to ones found on Earth, impossible.
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inestimably