A100. How many people could fit on the Moon? How large a population could the Moon support? (A K2S Question)

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The Moon's ability to support people strictly by itself is very limited. Each cubic yard of regolith contains ample elements to supply two ham sandwiches, two apples, and two cans of soda. However, they are not in a readily usable form, and so have to be processed out. It takes significant amounts of energy to unlock these elements from the soil and process them into usable form. It would also take a lot of cubic yards to keep a person fed. Recycling will be a very important discipline on the Moon. People who waste will be socially unpopular. By itself, the Moon could not support a population larger than a few tens or hundreds of thousands of people. If we start traveling to near-Earth asteroids (NEA) and mining them, a much larger population—numbering in the millions—could be supported on the Moon.

Answer provided by Thomas Matula, Ph.D. & Kenneth J. Murphy

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer