After leaving Gold Canyon we traveled to visit Biosphere 2 and spend an interesting time. I copied this from a web site.
Biosphere 2 is an Earth systems science research facility. It has been owned by the
University of Arizonasince 2011. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching and
lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the universe. It is a 3.14-acre (1.27-hectare)
[1] structure originally built to be an
artificial, materially closed ecological system in
Oracle, Arizona, US by Space Biosphere Ventures, a joint venture whose principal officers were
John P. Allen, inventor and Executive Director, and Margret Augustine, CEO. Constructed between 1987 and 1991, it explored the web of interactions within life systems in a structure with five areas based on biomes, and an agricultural area and human living and working space to study the interactions between humans, farming and technology with the rest of nature. It also explored the use of closed biospheres in
space colonization, and allowed the study and manipulation of a biosphere without harming Earth's. The name comes from Earth's
biosphere, "Biosphere 1". Project funding came primarily from the joint venture's financial partner,
Ed Bass' Decisions Investment, costing US$200 million from 1985 to 2007, including land, support research
greenhouses, test module, and staff facilities.
[citation needed]
Biosphere 2 sits on a sprawling 40-acre (16-hectare) science campus that is open to the public.
The size of two and a half football fields, it remains the largest closed system created.
[2] The glass facility is elevated 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above sea level at the base of the
Santa Catalina Mountains, half an hour outside
Tucson.
[3]
Biosphere 2 contained representative
biomes: a 1,900 square meter
rainforest, an 850 square meter
ocean with a
coral reef, a 450 square meter
mangrove wetlands, a 1,300 square meter
savannah grassland, a 1,400 square meter
fog desert, a 2,500 square meter
agriculturalsystem, a human
habitat, and a below-ground infrastructure. Heating and cooling water circulated through independent piping systems and
passive solar input through the glass
space frame panels covering most of the facility, and
electrical power was supplied into Biosphere 2 from an onsite natural gas energy center.
[4]
Biosphere 2 had two closure experiments, Missions 1 and 2, during which the structure was sealed with researchers living inside. The first, with a crew of eight people, ran for two years from 1991 to 1993. Following a six-month transition period during which researchers entered the facility through airlock doors and conducted research and system engineering improvements, a second closure with a crew of seven people was conducted March 1994 – September 1994. In the course of that second mission, a dispute over management of the financial aspects of the project caused the on-site management to be locked out, and the mission itself to be ended prematurely. The sealed nature of the structure allowed scientists to monitor the continually changing chemistry of the air, water and soil contained within. Health of the human crew was monitored by a medical doctor inside and an outside medical team.
[citation needed]
In 1995,
Columbia University took management of the facility for research and as a campus until 2003. In 1996, they changed the virtually airtight, materially closed structure designed for closed system research, to a "flow-through" system, and halted closed system research. They manipulated carbon dioxide levels for
global warming research, and injected desired amounts of carbon dioxide, venting as needed.
[5]
By 2006, the property, in
exurban Tucson, was slated to be redeveloped for a planned community.
[6] As of June 5, 2007, the property including surrounding land, 1,650 acres (6.7 km
2), had been sold to a residential home developer for US$50 million. A development including homes and a resort hotel was planned for a portion of the land. The Biosphere remained open for tours.
[7]
On June 26, 2007, the
University of Arizona announced it would take over research at the Biosphere 2. The announcement ended fears that the glass
vivarium would be demolished. University officials said private gifts and grants enabled them to cover research and operating costs for three years with the possibility of extending funding for ten years.
[8] It was extended for ten years, and is now engaged in research projects including research into the terrestrial water cycle and how it relates to ecology, atmospheric science, soil geochemistry, and climate change. In June 2011, the University announced that it would assume full ownership of Biosphere 2, effective July 1.
[9]
The agricultural area of Biosphere 2 was planted a year before closure, and biospherians managed their farm, growing and processing food, so that there would be a supply of food grown inside when the full closure began. During week-long periods of simulated full closure, data were gathered on agricultural operations and productivity, and crew adapted to their workload.
[citation needed]
These mini-missions were too short to attempt any meaningful agriculture or animal husbandry. No data were gathered that might have been useful in estimating whether the Biosphere itself was capable of sustaining eight people for two years.
[citation needed]
