One of the main questions surrounding humanity’s next giant leap into deep space is whether humans can thrive on deep space missions. From the ground. A new theory says yes, but only in environments deeply modeled on our own planet.

Father-daughter research duo Morgan Irons of Cornell University and Lee G. Irons of Norfolk Institute dub the idea “pancosmorio”, a word meaning “limit of all words”, in an article published in Frontiers in astronomy and space science last month. Irons and Irons argue that in order for humans to survive long treks into deep space, these missions must recreate Earth-like ecosystems, including terrestrial gravity and oxygen, reliable water sources, as well as societal systems like stable agricultural production and waste recycling.

“For humans to sustain themselves and all of their technology, infrastructure, and society in space, they need a self-renewing, Earth-like natural ecosystem to sustain them,” said Morgan Irons in a Press release of the establishment. “Without these types of systems, the mission fails.”

The theory is almost self-evident. Of course, a long-term space mission needs oxygen for astronauts to breathe. And reliable food supply from agriculturebut pancosmorio theory takes a holistic approach approach to the problem of human survivability and back in a evolving context. The crux of the pancosmorio theory is that mankind has made so far under certain conditions, and a failure model these out-of-world conditions will probably be used to condemn a deep space assignment.

“There are conditionss from which human life evolved. Such conditions are necessary to sustain human life at its current level of growth,” the scientists write in their study. “The availability of such conditions to humans defines the limit of their world.

Specifically, the Irons argue that an effective spatial settlement will have to recreate the environment And the societal networks that have allowed humanity to evolve and thrive on Earth – everything from generating oxygen to recycling waste must be considered and included. The theory states that the first ingredient is gravity, because human physiology as we know it and the processes that allowed humanity to develop have all been supported out of Earth’s gravitational pull.

“Our bodies, our natural ecosystems, all energy movements and how we use energy are all fundamentally based on the presence of 1G of gravity,” Morgan said in the press release. “There is simply no other place in space where there is 1G of gravity; which simply does not exist anywhere else in our solar system. This is one of the first problems we have to solve.

Indeed, the question of not potentially having on demand access to 1G raises many questions. How would the gravity requirements for an extended stay on a space station differ from those for a mission to the surface of a planet? What if humans have to survive for long periods of time on a planet with a fraction of Earth’s gravity? How would something like the conception and gestation of a human embryo work in an environment with gravity that doesn’t match Earth’s?

“Gravity induces a fluid pressure gradient within the body of the living being to which the autonomic functions of the life form are adapted,” Lee G. Irons said in the press release. “An example of gravitational imbalance would be the negative effect on eyesight of humans in Earth orbit, where they do not experience the weight necessary to induce the pressure gradient.”

Overall, theory is a practical way to organizee all the different parts needed for a crewed deep space mission and uses an evolving context to support their importance. What’s exciting is that some of these different pieces are already being studied, just on a smaller scale than these scientists hoped.

Related article: Japan wants to bring artificial gravity to the Moon

The researchers demonstrated that sseparate carbon dioxide with plasma on Mars And crush moon dust could be promising avenues for generating breathable oxygen. Likewise, growing crops on a celestial body like the Moon isn’t so far-fetched, because biologists have shown that crops can be grown in lunar soilalthough not well. Meanwhile, gravity on a space station can theoretically be generated with a rotating module, but generating an Earth-like attraction on a planet with a gravity that is a fraction of that on our home planet would most likely require rotation of an entire colony.

No doubt—ccreating Earth-like conditions away from Earth will be A daunting challenge, but new paper makes sense roadmap for moving Before.

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