We could probably build a self-contained area on the moon and live in it temporarily, but the cost would be enormous. You can estimate it if you find out how much it costs to send a kilogram of something to the moon.

How many people would be living there? How big would the space need to be? How much would the building weigh? Now you have to transport that to the moon, plus all the tools and materials, workers, and the space vehicle itself. Remember that the workers have to live in the ship while the moon base is being constructed. Construction would be very slow because workers would be in clumsy suits. Robots might be used for some of the work. We would have to transport them too. How long would the people be living on the moon? Every day a person uses 500 l (125 gal) of water here on earth. (That doesn't count the 7200 l used per person per day for farming, manufacturing, etc.) How much would the water supply weigh? Now for the oxygen. How much of that do you need per day? Then there's food, fuel, batteries, medical supplies, etc. You can probably think of lots of other things that you will need.

You couldn't stay on the moon for too long. When our bodies are weightless, they start breaking down. One problem is that our muscles atrophy (get weaker).

The bottom line is that it would be an adventure to visit there, but you couldn't stay there long. The people on Earth would have to work extremely hard to get you and your stuff there. It's another good reason to take good care of the Earth.

I just saw a press release from NASA today that says they are going to try to reduce the cost of launching material in space to $1000 per pound.If you wanted to live on the moon what would you have to bring and how much would it weigh? How much would it cost to ship it all to the moon? How does that compare with the NASA budget (about 10 billion dollars per year) or the U.S. government budget (about 1 trillion dollars per year)? How much less expensive would it be if you didn't have to bring water? NASA just announced that the Lunar Prospector has found evidence of water at the poles on the Moon.

Sure is. It would be hard to get everything up there that we would need, though. What would you bring if you wanted to go live on the moon?

Sure! We have already done it numerous times. Of course you must be inside of some sort of protective structure such as a space suit, or landing craft. Of course you must leave when you run out of supplies.