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We've had astronauts in the international space station for 18 years (with regular supply shipments from Earth) so we're definitely capable of living off Earth
by mLuby 8y ago
We've had astronauts in the international space station for 18 years (with regular supply shipments from Earth) so we're definitely capable of living off Earth with Earth support.
Since we're making unsubstantiated claims, here's mine: humanity will have a self-sufficient (given raw material inputs such as exist on Mars or the Moon) colony within 100 years.
- jonathankoren 8y agoOnly if there’s a way to make it pay, and pay a lot. Seriously. Colonization has never been about “redundancy” or “curiosity”, it’s always been driven by economics.
- gotocake 8y agoThose astronauts spend less than 216 days on that station, and require extensive physical therapy to recover (which they never fully do) when they get home. They’re also not a sustainable population, even with supplies and reinforcements from Earth. The longer they spend up there the more their long-term health suffers, and there’s no reason to believe that they could survive for years, never mind breed and sustain a population even with supplies. Pointing to the ISS as an example of how close we are to self-sufficient colonies betrays a total lack of comprehension about the challenges such an endeavor faces.