Can humans live self-sufficiently on the moon?

Mankind has always dreamt about space, the attraction of the stars, what lies beyond and the seemingly impossible nature of getting there, but they have put 12 men on the moon, and 483 more reached earth orbit. But 40 years on from the very first lunar landing man is looking for new challenges, a trip to Mars or, what I'll be looking at, a permanent lunar settlement. Ill be trying to define the problems associated with having a base on the moon and Ill attempt to find solutions that are available now and might be a reality within the next 20 years. A permanent base on the moon would be beneficial for many reasons. Firstly it would help scientists learn more about the moon and other aspects of space through a better position for a telescope , but maybe more importantly future space missions could be launched from the moon thus requiring less fuel to get the craft off the surface, incurring a lower cost per launch and using fewer resources. Getting there To get the Apollo astronauts to the moon they needed a form of propulsion, they used the Saturn V rocket, which needed 47,000kg of fuel to get the command module into lunar orbit, or 118,800kg for low earth orbit [1] and at a total cost of $6.5 billion, or in todays money $32-45 billion, this method of getting into space is evidently efficient enough to launch regular journeys from the earth to the moon. This factor is one of the most important because you would need to take all the materials and equipment to build your shelter, enough food, water and oxygen for the astronauts to live on until multiple machine are set up to produce those three things. Environment In its present state the moon is an inhospitable place, without oxygen and water, life as we know it could never live on the moon. This is predominantly due to a lack of atmosphere http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_the_Moon http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/moon_worldbook.html

http://www.esa.int/esaMI/SMART-1/SEMLB6XO4HD_0.html [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V