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Instead of perpetual manned space missions I’d like to see an experimental off world self sustaining biosphere. Put it in orbit, on the moon, or Mars and try to
by wefarrell 5y ago
Instead of perpetual manned space missions I’d like to see an experimental off world self sustaining biosphere. Put it in orbit, on the moon, or Mars and try to keep it alive while maintaining or increasing biodiversity. Make it modular so that it can be expanded and over time gradually introduce more complex forms of life.
There are many experiments of various types of organisms in space but I’m not aware of any that test and try to sustain entire ecosystems, something that’s essential for prolonged human life off of this planet.
- mLuby 5y agoLike Biosphere 2? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2 Improvements in space life support technology should have significant and positive applications on Earth as well.
- wefarrell 5y agoBiosphere 2 was too ambitious and they had humans so they needed to cheat. Also the gravity and background radiation levels are no different. We really need to do it outside of earth.
- idlewords 5y agoWe can't even do a self-sustaining biosphere here on earth (apart from the entire planet) yet. It's a hard problem!
- qayxc 5y agoThat's not true. You can easily make aself-contained biosphere yourself using just a glass bottle, some water, dirt, and a few select species of plants, algae, or insects/orthopods [0] You can even buy them [1]. [0] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2267504/The-sealed-bottle-garden-thriving-40-years-fresh-air-water.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2267504/The-... [1] https://eco-sphere.com https://eco-sphere.com
- idlewords 5y agoI thought the for-sale ones had a life of four yers, but there's that guy that kept his gallon jug alive for decades. Cool! Thanks for the correction.