And then, why then my dear travelers through this universe of ours, we will have the mind blowing space traveling abilities of the far future. I speak of the awe inspiring year of 2001.
At least that's how science fiction predicted it. Funny we're still driving combustion engine cars and the grand total of people who have been in space is still less than 1 thousand. (I guess that is a lot more than 1, but it is still less than a billion).
Now we hear about a "new" set of technologies being refined down under in Oz. [linky]
Devised by an international team of 30 space scientists, Luna Gaia would be a 'closed-loop' environment, meaning that almost all material within the system is recycled with very little need for input from outside sources. The current design caters for a team of 12 astronauts under isolation for up to three years.
This doesn't sound Earth shattering except it is a skill set that we do need to have fully understood before we can successfully deploy a space colony. Shipping up a couple of cases of macaroni and cheese gets a bit prohibitive at thousands of dollars per pound of payload.
A lunar base is unlikely to ever be 100 per cent self-sufficient, said Chartres, because no atmosphere is completely safe from leaks and it could not provide humans with all the nutrients that they need to survive.
Luna Gaia...ugh. Why not call it Lunar Colony Test Facility?