Biosphere 2

Patrice knows people who know people. One of the people he knows, knows the director (or something) of the Biosphere 2 (in case you didn't know, like me, what biosphere 1 is, it's the Earth.) We got the "cook's tour" of the facility. I have to admit, this was never on the top of my list of things to do and places to go, but it's hard to pass up an insider's view. Clark, who led our private tour, was very smart, engaging, personable, and even made science interesting to me.

The place is huge. Even for a non-engineer it is an impressive structure. It was built in the 80s (I had in my head that it was earlier...it seems like such a hippie project) and the original idea was to replicate life and systems that exist on earth in a self contained environment that could be transferred to another planet. The original crew had a 2-year mission, because that is how long it takes to travel to Mars. After the first mission and the NASA program ended, the biosphere was converted from a sealed environment to a semi-sealed environment. They continue to study each of the systems, the soil, water, plants, etc. to try to replicate climate changes on earth in order to predict, study, and resolve some environmental problems we face. After a little bit of tiptoeing around, it didn't take long to realize Clark was not a cuckoo lefty environmentalist global warming zombie nutjob. It was a relief. Then again, I think Patrice and I would have had some fun with him if he were...

This is the living quarters for the first crew. Pretty small. We learned that they had supplies for about 3 months and after that, they had to live off what they could produce. They had some animals like goats and chickens, and I think that when they started they were living off of about 1200 calories a day. But as time went by, the animals didn't last and they ended up living on 400 calories a day. There was a picture of 3 of them sitting together and Clark said "that's when they looked good." They were skinny hippies. He said that out of necessity, they became vegans. The things they didn't predict were the psychological effects of being enclosed and having to live and work so close together, and on a vegan diet. That would make anyone grouchy. I guess they pulled a mild Lord of the Flies episode and broke into factions. Not too productive for a scientific experiment. Clark also said that once in a while, one or two of them return, but since they were forced out by management, they pretty much stay away.  One psychological aspect they did take into account was having a view of the sky. Being fully enclosed without a wide vista would make them nutso much quicker.

A dinosaur exhibit. Nicco's favorite part.

One of the rainforests.

Bananas in the rainforest. By the end of the experiment, the original crew was mostly living on bananas and the food produced in the rainforest part of the biosphere.

This was an interesting tree. It grew itself back together. It is a nurse tree, so it helps other things grow. (So scientific and technical. Clark had a much more meaningful explanation, but my brain doesn't retain that kind of information for long.)

Clark, Papi, and Patrice, engaged in some interesting discussion of the environments in the biosphere. This was in the fog desert part, so it might have been about how the plants in the fog deserts get their moisture from the fog, since it doesn't really rain.

The ocean. There are fish there, and it even smells like the ocean. Part of the smell came from the mandrakes. Those are interesting plants. They break living things down and live off the decomposing matter. They also emit salt, so the walls of the buidling which had contact with the mandrakes were all rusted. Another couple of  interesting little facts: a big biological problem with the original experiment was the lack of oxygen. The soil, apparently, soaked up a lot more oxygen than the plants produced, and the concrete continues to cure for years and years, also soaking up oxygen. Another thing that was missing from the real environment was wind. That makes the trees a little funky. Trees need wind for exercise, so I suppose these were nature's version of couch potatoes.

Nicco on a path in the rain forest. This part was really impressive. You actually feel like you're in the rain forest. Minus birds, bugs, and animals. That was one of our observations...they claim that they are replicating all the systems on earth, but without any animals, it is hardly a complete picture.

In the guts of the place, on our way to the "lung." This was Nicco's other favorite part...it was echo-y. I am going to have to steal Papi's picture of the lung. It was really and truly amazing. There is a 17,000 ton disc suspended in the middle of this gigantic chamber, held aloft by AIR PRESSURE. They created a vacuum to manage the air flow and keep the building from exploding. When the air pressure changes, the disc moves up and down. Clark demonstrated this for us. It was mind blowing. Hard to explain.

Here's Mamie holding onto her sweater when Clark opened the outside door, changing the air pressure and creating quite a breeze!

And, Mamie helping Nicco through the blast of wind to the outside.

It was an interesting and educational experience, and I'm glad we went. I'm especially glad we got the insiders' tour instead of the regular public tour. We want to be friends with Clark. Patrice should cook for him.