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Of that nonexistent technology, I’d be less concerned about orbital construction methods and more concerned about sustainment of a closed-loop ecosystem. The cl
by _iyig 7y ago
Of that nonexistent technology, I’d be less concerned about orbital construction methods and more concerned about sustainment of a closed-loop ecosystem. The closest anyone’s come to running a human-scale test is Biosphere 2, which didn’t go too well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2
- freeone3000 7y agoI wasn't able to get how it went badly from that article. It seems like there were some management concerns, some factionalization (that didn't turn into anything worse?), and the entire thing looked like a boondoggle, but the major problems seemed to be they got some of the numbers wrong and had to hot-patch it? The takeaway I get from there is that it's theoretically possible, results are promising, but we don't yet have full formulae.
- _iyig 7y agoMainly I was thinking of the second mission, when former crew members vandalized the facility and Steve Bannon (yes, that Steve Bannon) was brought in by the owner to get costs under control. Strange story: https://www.wired.com/2016/12/trumps-chief-strategist-ran-massive-climate-experiment/ https://www.wired.com/2016/12/trumps-chief-strategist-ran-ma... That said, I agree that the results showed potential. I’d love to see a Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk give this idea another shot.