BIOSPHERE 2: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY

It was 1984 when a private organization named Space Biosphere Adventures, headed and funded by billionaire Edward Bass, designed Biosphere 2 (Bio2).  Located just north of Tucson in Oracle, Arizona, Bio2 represents the world’s largest earth science experiment. At a cost of $150 Million dollars, construction would take 3 years, cover 3.14 acres and house structures reaching 9 stories in height.

Entrance to Biosphere 2

Aerial view of Biosphere 2                   Photo: Public Domain

Of course my first question was “Is there a Biosphere 1?”  When presented to John Adams, Director of Bio2, his answer was simply “Biosphere 1 is the earth”.  

Tickets to Bio2 can be purchased online.    

On the day of my visit they were offering a limited number of tickets per day and once that limit is reached you would have to select another day.  Prior to arriving, or before starting the tour, you will want to download the Biosphere 2 Experience App.  The app features photos and videos compiled from the 30-year history of Bio2, as well as a self-guided tour of the complex.

Entrance to Biosphere 2

In June 1994, the managing company, Space Biosphere Ventures, was dissolved and the facility was left in limbo. Columbia University assumed management of the facility in 1995 and used it to run experiments until 2003. It then appeared in danger of being demolished to make way for housing and retail stores, but in 2007 was taken over for research by the University of Arizona. The University of Arizona took full ownership of the structure in 2011.

You will navigate the tour in a safe, socially distanced, one-way path around the exterior.  I somewhat felt like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.  Although not a yellow brick road, I followed colored directional arrows around the complex stopping at various numbered locations to listen to the online guide describe what I was viewing.  Once you complete the exterior tour you will be able to enter into the reopened portions of the interior of Bio 2.

As a completely closed self-sufficient structure, Bio2 consists of three main sections: an aboveground airtight glass-enclosed area, a belowground technology area known as the Technosphere, and an area designated as a human habitat.

 

The main aboveground structure is made of nearly 7.2 million cubic feet of sealed glass supported by steel frames and is 91 feet at its highest point. The main portion of the glass structure is rectangular and has ends resembling pyramids.  

 

Its seven biome areas consist of a 20,000 square foot (SF) rainforest, a 9,100 SF ocean with a coral reef, a 4,800 SF mangrove wetland, a 14,000 SF savannah grassland, a 15,000 SF fog desert, and two anthropogenic biomes: a 27,000 SF agricultural system and a human habitat with living spaces, laboratories and workshops. 

Desert biome

Desert biome

Desert biome

Desert biome

Desert biome

Rainforest biome

Rainforest biome

Rainforest biome

Ocean biome

Ocean biome

Ocean biome

Mangrove biome

Mangrove biome

Mangrove biome

The rainforest and desert ecosystems are separated from the other ecosystems by lightweight plastic curtains. Connected to the main biome area by a walkway are three rounded glass enclosures housing the agricultural area. 

Habitats in white / glass agricultural domes

The belowground Technosphere supports the 3.14 acre facility and contains the technology that runs and maintains the entire Bio2 environment.  Among the Technosphere components are more than two dozen air-handler units that control air temperature and humidity in Bio2, allowing for cooling, heating, condensation, and dehumidification. The Energy Center also provides hot and cold water for temperature regulation and houses generators that serve as an additional power source for Bio2.

On the south and west sides of Bio2 sit two large aboveground geodesic domes that contain the biosphere’s “lungs”.  These are huge variable-expansion chambers that regulate air pressure inside the glass enclosure. Each lung is connected to the biosphere by a tunnel and consists of a heavy metal plate attached to a rubber membrane. As external temperatures rise and fall, air remains trapped in the biosphere or is released from it. The release of air dissipates pressure that may exceed the strength of the glass. Below the south lung lies a 200,000 gallon tank for the collection of water from condensation within the biosphere.

Outside of Lung

Inside the Lung building

The survivability missions in Bio2 began on September 26, 1991, when four men and four women, referred to as “Biospherians” (individuals trained to perform specific tasks during the mission), were sealed inside the glass biome for a projected 2 year period. 

Habitat building

Habitat Building

Entrance to Habitat Building

Agricultural tasks occupied much of their daily routine, since they were expected to produce their own food, which included vegetables and grains from plants grown in soil beds; meat, eggs, and milk from farm animals; and fish raised in aquaculture beds. The crew kept detailed records on their agricultural production and atmospheric conditions. Within several months of entering the indoor atmosphere however, the Biospherians detected a decrease in their oxygen levels and an increase in carbon dioxide.  At the start of the mission the indoor atmosphere consisted of 20.9 percent oxygen. Seventeen months later, oxygen levels had dropped to 14.2 percent. Unable to identify the cause, officials decided to inject oxygen into the facility on at least two occasions, and the lungs were opened daily to allow inflow of air from the external environment. This decision was heavily criticized in the public eye because of the impossibility of such a rescue for a self-sustaining colony in space.

Adding to the oxygen problem, plant and animal die offs quickly hamstrained the Biospherians making it impossible for them to produce enough food to sustain their lives.   With the mission aborted after 17 months some called it a total failure.  John Adams, now Director of Bio2, called it “A lesson on how little we truly understood earths system”.

 

Biosphere 2 was only used twice for its original intended purposes as a closed-system experiment: once from 1991 to 1993, and the second time from March to September 1994. Both attempts ran into problems including low amounts of food and oxygen, die-offs of many animals and plants, group dynamic tensions among the resident crew, outside politics and a power struggle over management and direction of the project. Nevertheless, the closure experiments set world records in closed ecological systems, agricultural production, health improvements with the high nutrient and low caloric diet the crew followed, and insights into the self-organization of complex biomic systems and atmospheric dynamics. The second closure experiment achieved total food sufficiency and did not require injections of oxygen. 

  

Any visit to Tucson, Arizona should include a tour of Biosphere 2.