Biosphere 2

No, not a remake of the early 90's movie starring(?) Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin!

Biosphere 2 a privately funded, part research project and part (allegedly!) scare tactic by the doomsday cults on the billonaire who funded it. Do know what Biosphere 1 is? (Answer later)

This facility was completely self contained and self sufficient in its day (late nineties when 8 soles stayed in for 2 years) now open to the public, looking for a buyer to keep it going. (Asking price only $150,000,000.00!

The tour itself was pretty interesting; but didn't get into as much of the building as I would have liked. I want to get into the guts, see how the thing worked! But they obviously don't want to show you the CO2 scrubbers or oxygen supply system they forget to tell you about on the tour or in the 'official' history! (info on the alleged doomesdays scare, CO2 scrubbers, O2 supply system provided by doing a google search on the biosphere!)

Here's the complex itself. It sits down in a 'crater' type depression, so you see nothing as you drive to the front entrance and approach the complex.

Once inside, they take you through the different biomes of the complex, here is the 'prairie' or flat land area of the complex.








Here is the view from the rain forest canopy looking down to the ocean. 1 million gallon living reef. The end you see here is the wave and tide machine, to duplicate nature. The other end is a beach where the inhabitants could swim and fish.



Her is the mechanical buildings, they did not tour through these areas and they are separated by quite a distance from the main complex. After doing some internet research. They put carbon dioxide scrubbers and oxygen generation equipment in when it was found out the plants inside could not clean up and then produce oxygen quick enough to support its human and animal inhabitants.



The geometric area in the center of the picture is the living quarters and laboratory areas. The tour started here. Living quarters were very spacious given the space. The entire complex could be monitored and controls from this area. The controls room was really cool! The dome is the 'lung' of the complex. This was one of the most interesting aspects of the complex. Inside the dome is basically a huge (40 ton) aluminum disc suspended from the sides by a rubber bladder, underneath it is a water storage area. Basically, the complex could either explode or implode (when sealed off from the outside world) from pressure changes from the sun heating things up during the day. The disc/bladder system would move up or down to equalize the pressure from the complex, the water would condense in this area, thus the water collection basin. The tour took through an undergound tunnel into the underside of the 'lung' this is as close to the mechanics of the Biosphere as we got.



Here is the agriculture section of the complex. Nothing growing here currently, but the land was prepared and waiting for new inhabitants. Cool part of the ag building was the ceiling. With electronic equipments and lights to be able to replicate almost any type of weather condition they wish.

So, there it is. Overall, if you're in the Tucson area, worth checking out. Even though it was considered a success (the inhabitants made it the 2 years of the project) , researchers found out we have a long way to go before we can recreate our world on another planet. That reminds me, what is Biosphere 1? The earth, of course!