We're going to have
to go beyond what's happened in biosphere.
There is going to have to be more innovation.
I'm Chris Impey, Associate Dean for the College of Science,
Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona.
My module is the last one where we sort of expand beyond the framework of
the biosphere and the Earth itself to imagine
what resources might be needed to live beyond the Earth.
The original model of the biosphere was a completely self-contained habitat, which means,
you could imagine a biosphere on the surface of the moon, or Mars,
or another location where people are self-sufficient and self-contained.
This is a real challenge to be in
such a wonderful new environment offer and yet to be so contained.
The lessons of the biosphere on complexity on
interconnectedness of all these ecosystems should
advise and inform an experiment of how to live
off Earth in a sort of simplified version of an ecosystem.
So, humans are driven to explore.
It wasn't done for food or resources.
It was done for some curiosity of nomads just wanting to see what was beyond.
As we did that with our own planet,
and as soon as we got the technology,
we started doing it in space as well.
And then, the question becomes,
how can we do it safely and sustainably?
So, astronomy has taught us that the Earth is
a very special place and also taught us therefore,
that if we leave the Earth,
which we seem to have an inclination to do,
we're going to be in situations where we have
to be able to survive in hostile environments.
These places we might go off Earth are far less hospitable than the Earth and Mars.
The Moon essentially, no atmosphere, arid,
cold, extreme amounts of radiation.
So, you do actually have to have
a completely self-contained ecosystem living situation on each place.
And we're sort of approaching a time when we could visit the moon and Mars and
stay there for an extended period or maybe eventually colonize the surface.
So, biosphere becomes relevant once again.