Ask A Scientist© Environmental Science Archive

Author:     hermanek
Text:       Can you have a livable environment without gravity?

Response #: 1 of 1
Author:     Don Libby
Text:       Since many people have lived in zero gravity for months at a time, 
I would have to say yes. If you mean that the "environment" is a self-
sustaining ecosystem, no one has tried it yet, but the "Biosphere" experiment 
in Arizona was an attempt to see if a small self-contained ecosystem could 
sustain human life for more than two years - it worked. Of course they had 
gravity there, so it is not a complete test of your question. You might be 
interested to read some of the information about biological experiments 
conducted on the Space Shuttle in NASA's "Space Link" bulletin board.