and would it ever be possible to live permanently in space on the ISS.
The master speaks: If you lit a match in zero gravity, would it smother in its own smoke?
Yay I finally got to do that!
Question 1: Yes, assuming sufficient oxygen and an airflow.
Question 2: Yes, for an individual. There is no reason that a person could not stay there until death. Hard to say how soon that death would be. If the supply runs stopped, pretty damn quick.
Are you asking about a self-sustaining population, not de[endent on supplies from earth? If yes, then no. 
Disabling outer space smoke detectors is a galactic offence punishable by life long hearing of vogon poetry.
You can’t smoke a cig in space because there’s no oxygen.
Okay, fine. If you meant in a space station, then the answer is still probably no. Sure it might be technically possible to smoke in there, but they’re not going to let you because of the limited oxygen supply.
Since space is a vacuum, you wouldn’t be able to draw the smoke in, even if there were some way to keep the tobacco lit (self-oxidizing?). So technically, the OP answer is “no”.
Yeah, you’d have to get your friend blow into the lit end. Not fun for either of you.
[Homer] There’s an Air In Space Museum. [/Homer]
hmmm… well that’s what i figured, i was always curious. does anyone think that far in the future when we have people who acutualy live in space, that it could be possible to say, have a room to smoke in, or burn candles. ect…
I don’t think they would prohibit it because of the limited supply of oxygen – I mean, weren’t those guys in Das Boot smoking like chimneys? – but because it would make the air really nasty for anyone else who had to breathe it.
yeah, true. i always figured that since smoking is harmful to health they would just be like, no one is allowed to smoke in space.
It’s just a movie. Likewise, I’ve seen many movies where they were smoking in space ships.
This is getting off the topic a bit, but they didn’t really smoke in subs, did they?
They did, and still do.
When I was first attached to a sub in 1989, smoking was permitted throughout the boat, except in berthing areas and the wardroom (none of the officers smoked).
By the early 1990’s, most subs had established a designated smoking area, or at the CO’s whim, declared the sub to be “smoke free.” There were no end of problems with hard-core smokers assigned to smoke-free subs; I personally knew of one officer who went UA before deployment because he couldn’t take it anymore.
Soon thereafter, there was a directive that ALL subs must have a designated smoking area. While this prevented people from smoking in the control room, it also had the (unintended?) effect of eliminating smoke-free subs. The smoking area on my sub was back in the engine room, lower level, right above the bilge. It was a thoroughly miserable, dank, and smoke-filled place. It also averaged 3-10 people smoking 24/7.
BTW, you might be wondering how the atmosphere control equipment deals with cigarette smoke. There are CO-H[sub]2[/sub] burners that convert the CO to CO[sub]2[/sub] (and hydrogen to water vapor). The carbon dioxide is then removed with the CO[sub]2[/sub] scrubbers. Any other impurities remaining are generally not worried about.
Yes, assuming there was airflow in the station, I believe you could. The only thing is, If I had built and designed a multibillion dollar machine that couldn’t be fixed without much difficulty or threat to life, I wouldn’t allow open flame just so some guy could get his cigarette fix.
Or cigarette smoke near sensitive equipment.