Can We Terraform The Moon?

We have gazed upon the Moon with wonder since the dawn of humanity, and named its craters as seas, but could those become true seas one day?

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Credits:
Can We Terraform The Moon?
Episode 435; February 22, 2024
Produced, Written & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur

Editors:
Donagh Broderick

Graphics:
Ian "LITE" Long
Jarred Eagley
Jeremy Jozwik
Ken York
Mafic Studios
Sergio Botero
Udo Schroeter

Music Courtesy of

[m.mulder]

Whenever this show asks if we can do something, the answer is Yes. The real question is, how much effort and resources does it take.

[viddarkking]

When I play modded Stellaris I turn Earth into a Eco Ecumenopolis and Luna into an Industrial Ecumenopolis with an Equatorial Shipyard.
I think thats the far more likely future for our closest planetary companion.

[SebastianKrabs]

Isaac Arthur: "Can we X the Y?"
Audience: " Yes, YES!!"

[cluckeryduckery]

Hey Isaac. We've interacted before on your live streams. I've been a fan of the channel since the earliest days.

I just wanted to thank you. You leave me feeling optimistic about the future of humanity.

I'm in treatment for mental health. Treatment resistant depression, among other issues. I'm doing the work necessary to mitigate these issues, but they're still prevalent.

Your channel gives me hope. I can't count the number of times I've just put your channel on continuous play and just listened to a hopeful future.

You inspire me to not give up.

Thank you.

[complexi]

"There are over 50 million people living in the moon in my time. You can see Tycho City, New Berlin, even Lake Armstrong on a day like this."

[Reiman]

I would love to see the moon glitter with cities and greenery. She would look less lonely.

[seanhewitt]

A novel called thunderstrike was about a comet being diverted from a terran impact, but it struck the moon, creating an atmosphere...

[--styx]

oddly enough, humans have a form of movement almost perfectly suited to low gravity. Skipping... yeah I know it's weird but the push-catch motion is oddly very useful in low gravity where the normal push-pull of walking is too slow. By pushing off and catching yourself you could have very long skips and cover very large distances. Some food for thought. =)

[imawake]

The moons' current inhabitants would never allow it.

[MoonMorningstar]

If we can, we must turn it into Cheese

There is no other option.

[mahatmarandy]

Something i’ve always wondered: if you terraformed the moon, its albedo would be much higher, yes? And what effect would that have on life on earth? Nights would be less dark, possibly vastly less dark, and when the moon is out during the day, mightn’t it make those days slightly brighter than normal during the day? And wouldn’t this stress biological systems on earth? Just curious.

[YTLSF]

Would you consider making a video on terraforming harsh regions of earth? (For example, the Australian desert or the Sahara)

[cannonfodder]

The idea of looking up and seeing another living world does appeal to me. Would make for a geeat sight.

Another excellent episode, Isaac.

[manwiththeredface]

Why would we want to terraform it? It's more valuable without an atmosphere: we can store all kinds of things (records of ourselves etc.) for thousands of years without having to worry about things like corrosion etc.

[arcadiaberger]

I looked up at the Moon, hanging big and bright over the Pacific. It didn't seem any dimmer, spotted blue and green instead of gray and white. Out here between Australia and New Zealand, away from the city-glow (which wasn't as extreme as it had been back in the 21st Century, but still enough to diminish the splendor of Moon and the stars), I could really appreciate the glory of its fullness as it hung near the horizon.
“During my...well, my first lifetime, I argued with my friends whether we'd terraform any planets, and if so, whether it'd be Mars, Venus, even Titan, since it had a thick atmosphere. Most of us expected a mix of artificial habitats and terraformed planets. I said we'd build only habitats. Earth would be the center of our civilization for hundreds or thousands of years, and we'd never terraform another planet.
“I don't think any of us, back then, thought of the Mo- Um, I mean, Luna.”
Andeeya chuckled and lowered her eyes from the sky to look at me.
“What are the first three rules of real estate?”
“You mean, location, location and location?”
“Exactly. If Luna weren't right here, barely more than a light-second away from Earth, there's no way we'd have ever considered terraforming such a small body, but since she was right there, and since it turned out to be possible – only just possible, but possible – for people to be born and grow up on Luna and be healthy and to live healthily on Earth, it made a lot of sense for us to terraform Luna.
“That's why there are more than a billion people there right now, a tenth of the human race, and at times in the past, it's been home to almost a quarter of humanity.”
“Gee, I get the feeling you're kind of fond of Luna.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment.
“I used to say I hated it. I told everyone I hated it while I was living there, and for years I never had anything good to say about the time I spent there, but since then, I've been back a couple of times, and...yes, I guess I am fond of her at that.”
She shrugged.
“It's hard to find a decent restaurant there, though.”

[JasoTheRedF]

I'm honestly a fan of the massive moon-wide dome. I'm imagining it a bit like the interior of a Berch-Earth, with massive (or not so massive due to the low gravity) pillars holding up a hugely tall dome over a terraformed moon.

[justinokraski]

I thought trees were limited by capillary pressure ie the ability of water to climb the tree. Lower gravity doesn’t matter if there’s not enough water pressure to hydrate the canopy

[oiocha]

This is my favorite kind of your videos, exploring what is technically possible for humanity to do, even if it's not physically possible at the moment.

[pro]

The first rules of War there are no rules😊

[jusore]

To provide artificial gravity to settlements on other planets, it would be key to experimentally discover how to regulate the density of space-time to control the expression of gravity just as we can control the expression of other phenomena such as electromagnetism.