International treaties have banned the use, or testing, of nuclear weapons in space. Why would we need to test any more nukes? We already know they work. All too well!!

Who needs 'em?

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Ebbie, I'm sure it IS possible. There have been a number of experiments here on earth of people attempting to live in an enclosed, self-sustaining environment. "Archologies." I think Buckminster Fuller was involved in some of these schemes.

There have been a number of good science fiction stories based on the idea of self-sustaining colonies on the moon, probably most notably, Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Some of these stories contain some fairly detailed ideas on how this can be done.

A friend of mine came up with a renewable power source that, once constructed, would produce electrical power on the cheap in great quantities. He was thinking of the idea of building such a lash-up (which doesn't use solar cells) in the American southwest, or anywhere else in the world where the sun shines fairly constantly (Sahara? Kalahari?). It consists of piping containing some kind of fluid buried in the ground, turbines, and a large—huge!—sheet of insulating fiberglass or other insulating material mounted on rails.

All his figures (and he was an engineer) said that it would work like a champ in someplace like Arizona or New Mexico—but would be most efficient someplace like on the moon!

After the initial installation, it would cost next to nothing to maintain, and it keep right on pouring out the gigawatts.

Nobody's ever done anything like this. Doug commented that, "You won't see anything much using solar power efficiently until the electric companies figure out how to run a sunbeam through a meter!"

This sort of easy power source combined with hydroponic gardens and such for food, and—if it can be done on a large space station, it would be even easier on the moon.

Don Firth