During the implementation of the Biosphere 2 project, issues were resolved. Project - "biosphere", a paradise that burst
Project "Biosphere-2" - is life possible in an artificial habitat?
An incredibly sobering experiment!
Human civilization must have a backup plan; otherwise, by continuing such a rapid movement towards the destruction of our planet, it, a civilization, is inevitably doomed to extinction. Therefore, the researchers are faced with the question: what if living conditions on Earth become unsuitable for human existence. An equally interesting task is related to the colonization of outer space. Moreover, the first human flight to Mars is already planned to take place in 2018. They already tried to get answers to them in 1991. Space Biosphere Ventures, in collaboration with scientists, created an artificial model of an ecosystem with closed biological cycles. It was a grandiose project in scale, called. Where the number “two” emphasized that our Earth is still biosphere No. 1.
"Biosphere-2" from a bird's eye view.
The essence of the Biosphere-2 project
In the Sonoran Desert (Arizona, USA), on an area of 1.2 hectares, a network of hermetically sealed domed buildings isolated from the Earth's environment was built. The complex was divided into 5 landscape areas: savannah, forest, desert, mangrove estuary and even a miniature ocean with a beach area. The rest of the space was allocated for agricultural needs, residential premises, and a control and computing center for monitoring all ongoing processes and communication with the outside world. The fauna of the laboratory included more than three thousand different representatives, including goats, chickens, pigs and fish. Flora (about 4 thousand species) - trees, herbs and shrubs, could bring 46 varieties of plant food. According to calculations, the oxygen produced by plants, the food grown and the reuse of the same purified water would be enough for the necessary cycle of life. The complex was equipped with complex technical equipment that simulated many natural phenomena (rain, ocean currents, sea surf, etc.). It was assumed that this ark, including 8 people, was supposed to function autonomously for two years.
A tropical forest.
Farm.
“Biosphere-2” cost the developers $200,000,0000.
Ocean.
Progress of the Biosphere-2 experiment
4 men and 4 women, including certified agricultural professionals, a botanist, a sanitation worker, a mechanic, a doctor, and an oceanographer, voluntarily isolated themselves from the outside world to engage in subsistence farming for the benefit of science. Many employees were jealous of their colleagues, calling them lucky, thinking that they were going on a heavenly vacation. At the very beginning, life in the artificial biosphere looked really rosy. Bionafts enthusiastically worked on farms, fished, controlled the supply system, relaxed on the ocean, and in the evening they met at a single table, having philosophical conversations, eating excellent food from freshly prepared products - what is not heaven?
A group of participants in the scientific project “Biosphere-2”, in full force.
Group Doctor Roy Walford.
Dining area of "Biosphere-2".
Kitchen block "Biosphere-2".
The bedroom of one of the participants.
But after 7 days, the excited technician informed everyone that the designers of Biosphere-2 had made a mistake in the calculations and the percentage of oxygen in the air was dropping. And if the trend continues, then it will be impossible to live in the dome within a year. From that time on, the colonists began intense activity aimed at eliminating the error. The first step was to make a decision to intensively grow plants that produce high O2 levels. Then the backup CO2 absorber was launched. The sudden savior was the ocean, in which carbon dioxide settled, however, this caused the acidity of the reservoir to constantly increase, and it was necessary to lower it artificially. All the measures taken did not give the desired result - the air became increasingly rarefied.
Over time, another problem arose. It was discovered that the entire farming enterprise of Biosphere-2 can only feed the scientists 80%. The daily diet had to be reduced to 1,700 kcal (this figure is normal for office workers, but not for people engaged in physical labor). The buffet has been replaced with measured portions. People felt hungry for a while. This gave rise to conflict situations between bionaphthas. In particular, the food pantry had to be locked; after an outrageous looting incident, which remained unsolved, no one admitted their guilt.
Bionaphthas work on the farm.
It later turned out that Jane Poynter (farm manager), two months before the launch, had calculated the food shortage. But, under pressure from team doctor Roy Walford, she decided not to voice her thoughts. It turns out that the doctor was working separately on proving the theory of increasing life expectancy as a result of reducing calorie intake. His early experimental rats, whose calorie intake was cut in half, lived twice as long. He planned to conduct his secret experiment on people in the conditions of “Biosphere-2”. He got it into the woman’s head that such a diet would only improve the health of the participants. The doctor was the only person who did not complain about the lack of food. After 6 months of eating this way, people lost an average of 10 kg in weight, their blood tests became better, their cholesterol dropped, and their metabolism normalized.
At the same time, the subjects felt increasingly worse. The summer months of next year in Biosphere 2 turned out to be the most difficult. Food chains in the artificial environment were incomplete, and the number of harmful insects, in the absence of a countervailing number of natural enemies, increased rapidly. The rice crop was destroyed. I had to eat legumes and carrots. The abundance of accumulated carotene in the body gave their skin an orange tint. Large trees in the “jungle” sector began to collapse and fall (after scientists, racking their brains over the phenomenon of fragility of trees, concluded that the reason was the lack of wind in the complex, which in natural conditions, weakening, strengthens their trunks). The animal and plant world began to decline. The only ones who had a good life were the cockroaches and goosebumps, their population increased every day.
At that time, the O2 level in Biosphere-2 showed 16% (the norm is 21%). As a result of oxygen starvation, the colonists felt constant fatigue, dizziness, and they could no longer perform their duties as required. People became sad, depressed and irritable; this emotional state led to constant showdowns within the group. The main reason for the scandals was a difference of opinion: some of the participants believed that, despite the difficulties of the experiment, it was necessary to complete the work and stay under the dome for the planned time, four had the opposite opinion. They thought it was necessary to urgently ask for help and involve other scientists in the project in order to understand where the air was disappearing. They also didn’t mind pumping in the missing oxygen and organizing food supplies from outside.
From the memoirs of participant Jane (who advocated attracting outside help): “I experienced constant dizziness, but I still had to tidy up the cattle in the barn, while resting every minute, otherwise I would fall unconscious. In the morning, we again discussed with the team the current problems in “Biosphere-2”, then I expressed that being in such conditions, starving and suffocating, is no longer science, but a sect! I thought about everything that was happening and at that very second, Abigail Ayling (research director) came up to me and spat in my face! I said in confusion: “Why?” “You’ll eat,” she answered as she left.
Meanwhile, excursion buses with tourists drove up every day to gawk at the fantastic characters advertised in the press, living in a large aquarium, and had no idea about the passions raging inside. By the way, as the creators of the first reality show “Big Brother” later admitted, “Biosphere-2” served as a prototype for the creation of a Dutch project.
Every day hundreds of tourists gathered under the walls of Biosphere-2.
Already in the autumn of ninety-two, O2 fell to a level of 14.2%. Doctor Walford officially said that he was resigning from all official duties due to the fact that he was no longer able to add double-digit numbers in his mind. In the dark it became even more difficult, as a result of the lack of plant photosynthesis, O2 rapidly decreased. At this stage, all mammals in Biosphere-2 had already died. External test managers decided to begin pumping oxygen and supplying additional products. The measures taken had a good effect on the health of the subjects, but this did not lead to their use, which hindered further research.
In September 1993, everything officially ended and people came out. Soon, journalists found out about the secret supply of air and food and immediately dubbed “Biosphere-2” the greatest scientific failure of the century.
Where did the oxygen go?
As it turned out later, the problem was in the cement partitions of the dome, with which O2 reacted and fell onto the walls in the form of oxides. The second factor was microorganisms in the soil. The most fertile black soil was chosen for the test, with the intention of preserving natural trace elements in it for a longer time. But such soil also contains the largest number of bacteria, which also consume oxygen. If the experiment were carried out on another planet, then its end would be the death of the colonists. Inside the Biosphere-2 complex there is still an inscription made by one of the participants on the inner wall: “Only in this place did we feel how much we depend on nature. If the trees disappear, we will have nothing to breathe, if the water becomes polluted, we will have nothing to drink.”
Afterwards, attempts were made to conduct similar studies, but without human participants. The attempt did not bring the expected results, sponsors refused funding and the project was frozen. For many years, Biosphere-2 changed owners and remained a tourist attraction. Until in 2011, the University of Arizona resumed scientific work on the territory of the complex related to the study of climate change, which continues to this day. 23 years have passed since the end of the experiment and science does not stand still; we look forward to the publication of new discoveries in the field of astrobiology.
Video: Jane Poynter talks about life and the difficulties of working at Biosphere 2.
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At the beginning of 1990, in the American desert near Arkansas, a project was launched that had grandiose goals, to create a closed complex, absolutely isolated from the conditions of the outside world. That is, according to the terms of the project, it was envisaged that the participants living inside the complex would be as if on an alien planet, with an aggressive external environment.
The project was called “Biosphere-2”; the number 2 meant that the number 1 was the Earth itself. The authors of the project modeled a large-scale biosphere that occupied an area of 1.5 hectares. And the project, backed by billionaire Edward Bass, was built by Space Biosphere Ventures.
The Biosphere-2 project was a huge complex with greenhouses, containing about 3 thousand species of animals and plants, with an atmospheric volume of about 204 thousand m3 of air. In a large-scale project to model a closed ecosystem, 8 people took part on a voluntary basis.
The most important goal of the Biosphere-2 project was the prospect of further application in space exploration. And I remembered the somewhat forgotten Biosphere-2 project in connection with the growing interest in the exploration of Mars, and how this could happen. After all, the goal of the project was to find out whether a group of people could live and work in a closed environment.
And the plans for the project were big, because if successful, the project’s developments could be used to create autonomous settlements on distant planets of the solar system. In addition, the Biosphere-2 complex could be used in the event of a global deterioration of the environmental situation on the Earth itself.
The structure of the Biosphere-2 complex.
Of course, the Biosphere-2 complex, built in the desert of Arizona (USA), did not have the necessary protection - if it had been built, for example, on Mars - this means protection from meteorites and asteroids. However, on Earth there was no need for this - otherwise it is a complex completely isolated from the external environment, where project participants communicated with the outside world exclusively through a computer.
The complex, located in the American desert, was a capsule-type building, hermetically sealed. Each building of this complex was a separate, independent ecosystem. Light materials were used for the construction of the buildings, with a domed glass roof allowing about 50 percent of sunlight to pass through.
For the life of four women and four men, the Biosphere-2 complex had several different biomes - desert and savannah, tropical forest and ocean with a coral reef. Naturally a residential module. The agrocenosis module, where settlers grew fruits and vegetables, and the place where goats grazed, are also participants in the project. That is, the scope of the project, you can imagine.....
The project scientists approached the species composition with special attention in order to reproduce the natural cycle of substances as thoroughly as possible. This also includes the decomposition of organic matter, including the waste of the participants in the Biosphere-2 project. However, simulating the Earth's biosphere has proven difficult for researchers.
Problems of the project “Biosphere-2”.
The problem of lack of oxygen came first. As it turned out, plants, despite careful preliminary calculations, cannot provide normal oxygen content in the project modules. Gradually, from the first weeks of the project, oxygen levels began to decline.
The project participants were subjected to oxygen starvation, the level decreased from 21% to 15% - under such conditions, the participants lived in the complex from 1991 to 1993; climbers experience similar starvation at an altitude of about 4 thousand meters. As the scientists working on the project suggested, this is due to soil microorganisms. As a result, oxygen began to be pumped into the complex from outside.
The next problem faced by participants in the closed ecosystem is the lack of food. It turned out that the area allocated for agrocenosis is too small for 8 people to feed on it. To solve the problem, it was necessary to increase the grain sowing density. And in the tropical forest, the settlers planted bananas and papaya.
And the third problem faced by participants in the artificial ecosystem “Biosphere-2” was the inability to control the growth of insect pests, the number of which was increasing. According to the terms of the project, the use of pesticides was not allowed, and the participants had to manually collect pests and, in addition, independently breed their natural enemies.
A large-scale experiment revealed that the lack of wind has a detrimental effect on trees. The lack of pressure from the wind on the tree trunk makes the wood so soft that the tree trunks break under their own weight.
The psychological factor of a small group of people living in isolation also had an impact. Firstly, one of the participants in the experiment cut off her finger, which could not be reattached, as a result of which she had to leave the project. And the situation between the voluntary settlers became so tense that they split into two camps - having difficulty enduring a joint society.
Results of the Biosphere-2 project.
As a result, a large-scale closed ecosystem project since 1996 was further carried out by scientists from Columbia University, albeit without human participation. Some buildings of the complex were even available for those wishing to view the grandiose project. However, by 2005, researchers no longer needed it, and the Biosphere-2 complex was abandoned and put up for sale.
The Biosphere project lasts 40 years.
Englishman David Latimer developed his own Biosphere project about 40 years ago. Exactly so many years ago. Taking a huge bottle, he walled up a plant in it, and established a closed ecosystem about two meters from the window; from that time on, the biosphere was not opened.
Water leaving the leaves of the plant condensed on the walls of the vessel, then spilling onto the plant. And the oxygen produced as a result of photosynthesis was absorbed by falling leaves, which decomposed. The oxygen generated by the decomposition process was again absorbed by the plant, forming organic matter and oxygen. Thus, the plant did not require care, and David Latimer was able to create a closed ecosystem.
This story began in the early 90s, when a group of volunteer scientists decided to create a closed and autonomous biological system under sealed domes and live in it for 2 years. The glass modules included almost everything necessary for life: a jungle, a savannah, a swamp, and even a small ocean with a beach and a coral reef.
More than 3,000 species of plants were planted. About 4 thousand different fauna were also released inside, including goats, pigs and chickens on the farm. Scientists were confident that they had all the necessary knowledge to model closed ecosystems, but it turned out that not everything is so simple...
Biosphere-2- it was such a planet in miniature, untouched by the technical revolution, where 8 intelligent, enlightened people planned to engage in simple physical labor, gather at the same dining table, play music in their leisure hours and, finally, work for a great goal, for the benefit of science.
Artificial lungs were invented for air exchange. Only electricity was supplied from outside. But they did not take into account a number of significant circumstances and did not consider it necessary to cooperate with scientists, ecologists, chemists, and physicists, but approached the process as fun or a show.
How it all began
A great enthusiast of creating a model of a closed biosphere was Texas billionaire Ed Bass. He was also the main sponsor. The development of structures and systems took about 10 years, during which time special groups of scientists collected various species of animals and plants throughout the Earth to populate Biosphere 2, selected soil samples, carefully ensuring that everything there was biologically balanced.
At first everything was exactly as they dreamed. The colonists enthusiastically worked in the fields of the farm, checked the operation of all systems, watched the vibrant life of the jungle, fished, sat on their small beach, and in the evenings ate a superbly prepared dinner from the freshest ingredients on the balcony overlooking the ripening harvest.
Behind the green beds and glass wall of the farm, the desert and mountain range began, behind which the sun set. The colonists nicknamed this balcony the “Visionary Cafe” - from here the future seemed especially rosy. After dinner, there were philosophical discussions or impromptu jam sessions.
Many took musical instruments with them, and although there were no professional musicians among them, what was produced seemed, on the wave of general enthusiasm, to be the avant-garde music of the future.
About a week later, the Biosphere's chief technician, Van Tillo, came to breakfast very excited. He announced that he had strange and unpleasant news. Daily measurements of air conditions showed that the dome designers had made mistakes in their calculations. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere gradually decreases and the percentage of carbon dioxide increases.
So far this is completely unnoticeable, however, if the trend continues, in about a year existence at the station will become impossible. From that day on, the paradise life of the bionauts ended, and an intense struggle began for the air they breathed.
Firstly, it was decided to increase green biomass as intensively as possible. The colonists devoted all their free time to planting and caring for plants. Second, they ran the backup carbon dioxide absorber at full capacity, from which sediment had to be constantly scraped off.
Thirdly, the ocean became an unexpected helper, where some CO2 settled, turning into acetic acid. True, the acidity of the ocean constantly increased due to this, and it was necessary to use additives to reduce it. Nothing helped. The air under the dome became increasingly rarefied.
Soon, another global problem arose before the bionauts. It turned out that a farm of 20 acres, with all modern land cultivation technologies, can provide only 80% of the colonists’ food needs. Their daily diet (the same for women and men) was 1,700 calories, which is normal for a sedentary office life, but catastrophically low for the amount of physical work that each resident of the Biosphere had to do.
One evening, Jane Poynter, in charge of the farm, admitted that she knew about a future food crisis. Several months before moving in, she calculated that the bionauts would not have enough food, but under the influence of Dr. Walford and his ideas about a healthy diet, it was decided that this shortage would only be beneficial.
The doctor, by the way, was the only one who did not complain of hunger. He continued to insist on the validity of his theory: after just six months of the “starvation” diet, the bionauts’ blood condition improved significantly, cholesterol levels dropped, and metabolism improved.
People lost 10 to 18 percent of their body weight and looked remarkably youthful. They smiled from behind the glass at journalists and curious tourists, pretending that nothing was happening. However, the bionauts felt worse and worse.
The summer of 1992 became especially difficult for the colonists. The rice crops were destroyed by pests, so that for several months their diet consisted almost entirely of beans, sweet potatoes and carrots. The excess beta-carotene caused their skin to turn orange.
Adding to this misfortune was a particularly strong El Niño, due to which the sky above Biosphere 2 was overcast almost all winter. This weakened the jungle's photosynthesis (and therefore the production of precious oxygen), and also reduced the already meager harvests.
The world around them was losing its beauty and harmony. In the “desert,” condensation on the ceiling caused regular rainfall, so many plants rotted. Huge five-meter trees in the jungle suddenly became fragile, some fell, breaking everything around them. (Subsequently, when studying this phenomenon, scientists came to the conclusion that its cause lay in the lack of wind under the dome, which strengthens tree trunks in nature.)
The drains in the fish ponds became clogged and there were fewer and fewer fish. It became increasingly difficult to combat the acidity of the ocean, which was causing corals to die. The fauna of the jungle and savannah was also inexorably declining. Only cockroaches and ants felt great and filled all the biological niches. The biosphere was gradually dying.
On September 26, 1993, the experiment had to be stopped when the oxygen level inside the complex reached 15%, when the norm was 21%. People came out for air. They were weakened and embittered. The biosphere turned out to be unsuitable for life.
In 2011, the complex was purchased by the University of Arizona to continue research. Nowadays, visiting schools are held there; more than 10,000 schoolchildren visit the Biosphere every year.
So what was this mysterious oxygen problem?
When scientists carefully examined the deplorable state of the ruined domes, they came to the conclusion that the cement floors played a fatal role. Oxygen reacted with cement and settled in the form of oxides on the walls. Another active consumer of oxygen is bacteria in the soil.
For “Biosphere” they chose the most fertile black soil so that it would have enough natural microelements for many years, but in such soil there were a lot of microorganisms that breathe oxygen in the same way as vertebrates. Scientific journals recognized these discoveries as the main and only achievements of the Biosphere.
On one of the inner walls of the “planet” there are still several lines written by one of the women:
“Only here we felt how dependent we were on the surrounding nature. If there are no trees, we will have nothing to breathe, if the water is polluted, we will have nothing to drink.”
From the biosphere to the ecovillage
But this story has a continuation... Several participants in the experiment decided not to stop their search for an ideal world and, having made the necessary conclusions, left to create an eco-village on an abandoned desert site in Portugal. Now this eco-village is considered one of the most technologically advanced and successful in the world and has become a place of pilgrimage for many researchers and activists. The average annual income of an ecovillage is about 1 million euros and 60% of this income comes from educational seminars and trainings. And its name is Tamera.
At 8:15 a.m. on September 26, 1991, eight men dressed in uniform futuristic jumpsuits waved to a huge crowd of journalists and entered the hermetic airlock that led to ... Paradise 2. At least that's what many newspapers of that time wrote. Officially, it was a grandiose scientific project called “Biosphere-2”. It was located in the Arizona desert and was a system of airtight glass domes. Five landscape modules were installed inside (jungle, savannah, swamp, small ocean with a beach and a coral reef, desert), an agricultural block equipped with the latest technology, and a residential building built in an avant-garde style. In addition to people, about 4 thousand various representatives of fauna were released inside, including goats, pigs and chickens on the farm. This entire ark had to exist autonomously for two years, feeding on what grew under the dome, breathing the oxygen that the plants released, purifying and endlessly using the same water. A kind of miniature planet, untouched by the technical revolution, where eight intelligent, enlightened people, four men and four women, planned to do simple physical labor, gather around the same dinner table, play music in their leisure hours and, finally, work for a great goal, for the benefit of science . Why isn't it heaven?
Start
The founding father of this project, later listed by Times magazine as one of the “100 Biggest Failures in History,” was named John Allen. He was a happy man. After studying at the metallurgical institute and working a little in his profession, John quickly abandoned this business, since his parents’ inheritance was enough for a comfortable life, and plunged headlong into science, and in its most Indiana-Jonesian manifestation. Allen funded small scientific expeditions to remote corners of the world to study, say, the agriculture of ancient civilizations. Young enthusiasts were recruited for this cause, they all went together to some outback, where they engaged in scientific research at the intersection of ethnography and ecology, and in fact traveled from place to place and had a great time. At some point, a group of enthusiasts and enthusiasts formed around Allen, whom he united into a kind of commune - the Synergy Ranch in New Mexico. However, although this took place in the late 60s, it was not at all like an esoteric gathering of hippies, although Allen, quite in accordance with the traditions of that time, took on the role of spiritual leader. Despite the inheritance, he was a man with real business acumen. Before starting his scientific research, he managed to be a developer in Asian countries, the founder of a recruiting agency for mercenaries and the manager of a large steel company, so he had a lot to tell about his life. Also at the Synergy ranch, they were keen on studying the history of philosophy and practiced amateur theatrical performances, which helped the participants “unleash their creative potential”, and generally maintained the atmosphere of a student summer expedition.
All this would probably have continued in the same spirit if the real billionaire Ed Bass had not wormed his way into the midst of careless students. He enthusiastically attended seminars, participated in theatrical tomfoolery, and generally demonstrated in every possible way that he was ready to do anything for the sake of science. Allen decided that it was simply stupid to miss such a chance, and with the help of Ed, he decided to carry out one of the most high-profile private scientific projects in the history of mankind.
This was “Biosphere-2” - a garden of Eden behind a glass wall, a prototype of a future lunar or Martian colony, or even a shelter in the event of a global catastrophe in 2012. In general, your own wonderful pocket world where you can set your own laws.
Let’s say right away that serious scientific institutions were skeptical about the idea of “Biosphere-2” from the very beginning, since, firstly, none of the founders of the project was an academic scientist, and secondly, the financing of this impressive experiment did not occur within the framework of the state program or at least under the auspices of some institution, but simply at the whim of a private individual.
But the press was simply delighted with “Biosphere”. Eight people surviving in a confined space, similar to a studio pavilion... This idea was in the air, and if the creators of Biosphere 2 had thought of putting cameras inside the dome, they would have become the founders of modern reality shows* and would probably have fought off would be all the millions spent on the project. But, alas, for all his business acumen, Allen was a man of the last century and, perhaps, too snobbish: he wanted to be a scientist, not a showman. So he missed this moment.
* “By the way, the creators of the Dutch “Big Brother,” the first reality show, admitted that they were inspired by “Biosphere 2.”
Creation
In the town of Oracle in southern Arizona, about 16 hectares of land were purchased, on which Ed and Allen began to design their new world. Famous engineers and architects were invited to build the dome system; workers from the best botanical gardens in the world and oceanologists were called in to design the bionic modules (ocean, jungle, savannah, desert and swamp). The agricultural block was developed taking into account the most modern technologies of intensive farming, as well as using some specific techniques of ancient civilizations, which Allen knew perfectly. For example, the fish pond system integrated into the swampy part of the Biosphere was made according to the ancient Chinese model. Farming was supposed to be completely organic, without the use of pesticides or even artificial fertilizers. After all, the system of irrigation of beds, processing of organic waste and the process of obtaining drinking water were completely interconnected, so that all the chemistry would very quickly end up on the table of the inhabitants of the “Biosphere”.
Particular attention was paid to the complete tightness of the domes, which exceeded the tightness of spaceships. At the same time, such a technical point as air expansion during the daytime temperature increase was taken into account. To prevent the “sealed capsule” of the “Biosphere” from exploding, so-called “lungs” were constructed - huge curved membranes, spaced at different ends of the system, which became convex during the day and deflated at night.
The only resource that this huge greenhouse, standing in the middle of the desert, had to take from outside was electricity, primarily used to cool the water circulation.
As a result, the construction of the entire complex of structures with an area of just over a hectare, including the creation of bionic modules and the settlement of animals, cost $150 million. Another 50 million was spent on maintaining the Biosphere in working order during the experiment.
Check-in
In 1991, the artificial Garden of Eden was completely ready for the appearance of man. The first harvest ripened in the fields of the farm, fish splashed in the ponds, hummingbirds flew in the tropical forest and a small waterfall gurgled along the rock, a 30-meter sea washed a miniature white sandy beach with palm trees.
Eight people were selected for the role of Adam and Eve. Tellingly, neither Allen nor Bass were included in their number: as true creators, they had to control the process from the outside. However, there was no shortage of volunteers from among the members of the commune at the Synergy Ranch. The “captains” of the colony were 36-year-old Sally Silverstone, who had previously worked on agricultural projects in India, and 30-year-old Mark Van Tillo, a professional mechanic who previously worked on the Bass research yacht. Sally was to be responsible for the financial and organizational part of the project, Mark for the technical part. Abigail Ayling, 31, a professional oceanographer, was appointed director of research. Botanist Linda Ley, 39, was responsible for the Biosphere's flora. Intensive agriculture specialist Jane Poynter, 29, was responsible for the farm and providing food for the colony. 27-year-old Taber McCallum, the only participant in the experiment without a higher education, acted as a technical assistant. Mark Nelson, a 44-year-old bachelor of philosophy, took the position of PR director: he transmitted information from the Biosphere to the outside. He was also in charge of irrigation and sewage systems. Finally, the most exotic participant in the experiment - 67-year-old impressive doctor Roy Walford played the role of the on-board doctor. Roy became interested in “Biosphere” in connection with his own research: he had a theory that consuming calories below the subsistence level leads to improved health and increased life expectancy. He wanted to see how an almost entirely vegetarian, organic diet would affect the health of the bionauts.
On September 26, 1991, eight future bionauts got up before dawn, had breakfast with scrambled eggs and bacon, sat through a long press conference, had a photo shoot, took part in a solemn farewell ceremony, and finally entered the dome, closing the sealed door behind them. They remember how, already tired, they sat in the wardroom that morning, looked at the clouds floating above the glass roof, just like usual, and could not believe that the experiment had begun. There was no turning back now.
First problems
At first everything was exactly as they dreamed. The colonists enthusiastically worked in the fields of the farm, checked the operation of all systems, watched the vibrant life of the jungle, fished, sat on their small beach, and in the evenings ate a superbly prepared dinner from the freshest ingredients on the balcony overlooking the ripening harvest. Behind the green beds and glass wall of the farm, the desert and mountain range began, behind which the sun set. The colonists nicknamed this balcony the “Visionary Cafe” - from here the future seemed especially rosy. After dinner, there were philosophical discussions or impromptu jam sessions. Many took musical instruments with them, and although there were no professional musicians among them, what was produced seemed, on the wave of general enthusiasm, to be the avant-garde music of the future.
About a week later, the Biosphere's chief technician, Van Tillo, came to breakfast very excited. He announced that he had strange and unpleasant news. Daily measurements of air conditions showed that the dome designers had made mistakes in their calculations. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere gradually decreases and the percentage of carbon dioxide increases. So far this is completely unnoticeable, however, if the trend continues, in about a year existence at the station will become impossible. From that day on, the paradise life of the bionauts ended, and an intense struggle began for the air they breathed.
Firstly, it was decided to increase green biomass as intensively as possible. The colonists devoted all their free time to planting and caring for plants. Second, they ran the backup carbon dioxide absorber at full capacity, from which sediment had to be constantly scraped off. Thirdly, the ocean became an unexpected help, where some CO2 settled, turning into acetic acid. True, the acidity of the ocean constantly increased as a result, and additives had to be used to reduce it*. Nothing helped. The air under the dome became increasingly rarefied.
* “By the way, exactly the same thing is happening to the world’s oceans, the acidity of which has increased by 30% over the past hundred years.”
Soon, another global problem arose before the bionauts. It turned out that a farm of 20 acres, with all modern land cultivation technologies, can provide only 80% of the colonists’ food needs. Their daily diet (the same for women and men) was 1,700 calories, which is normal for a sedentary office life, but catastrophically low for the amount of physical work that each resident of the Biosphere had to do. At first, dinner was served as a buffet, but soon serious conflicts began to arise because of this, and food began to be put on everyone’s plate, measured literally to the gram. People got up from the table hungry and constantly dreamed of delicacies from the big world. Evening philosophical discussions replaced fantasies about what they would eat when they were released. The pantry where the bionauts' main delicacy, bananas, was stored had to be locked after a disgusting episode with anonymous looting. Before giving the peelings to the pigs, people carefully selected everything that they could eat themselves. Banana skins and nut husks were considered a delicacy.
One evening, Jane Poynter, in charge of the farm, admitted that she knew about a future food crisis. Several months before moving in, she calculated that the bionauts would not have enough food, but under the influence of Dr. Walford and his ideas about a healthy diet, it was decided that this shortage would only be beneficial. The doctor, by the way, was the only one who did not complain of hunger. He continued to insist on the validity of his theory: after just six months of the “starvation” diet, the bionauts’ blood condition improved significantly, cholesterol levels dropped, and metabolism improved. People lost 10 to 18 percent of their body weight and looked remarkably youthful. They smiled from behind the glass at journalists and curious tourists, pretending that nothing was happening. However, the bionauts felt worse and worse.
A crisis
The summer of 1992 became especially difficult for the colonists. The rice crops were destroyed by pests, so that for several months their diet consisted almost entirely of beans, sweet potatoes and carrots. The excess beta-carotene caused their skin to turn orange.
Adding to this misfortune was a particularly strong El Niño, due to which the sky above Biosphere 2 was overcast almost all winter. This weakened the jungle's photosynthesis (and therefore the production of precious oxygen), and also reduced the already meager harvests.
The world around them was losing its beauty and harmony. In the “desert,” condensation on the ceiling caused regular rainfall, so many plants rotted. Huge five-meter trees in the jungle suddenly became fragile, some fell, breaking everything around them. (Subsequently, when studying this phenomenon, scientists came to the conclusion that its cause lay in the lack of wind under the dome, which strengthens tree trunks in nature.) The drains in the fish ponds became clogged, and there were fewer and fewer fish. It became increasingly difficult to combat the acidity of the ocean, which was causing corals to die. The fauna of the jungle and savanna was also inexorably declining. Only cockroaches and ants felt great and filled all the biological niches. The biosphere was gradually dying.
The owners of paradise felt no better. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere constantly decreased and reached 16% (the norm is 20%). This is comparable to the rarefied air of the mountains, and usually the human body quickly adapts to this condition. However, due to the general exhaustion of the colonists, mountain sickness did not let them go. The bionauts began to get tired quickly, they were constantly dizzy, and they could no longer do the same amount of work. But in the most radical way, oxygen starvation affected their morale. Everyone felt depressed, sad, irritated. Every day there were scandals under the dome.
The main reason for the conflict was that Allen did not allow the bionauts to make their problems public. He continued to pretend that the experiment was going according to plan. Half of the colonists (both captains, the PR director and the head of scientific research, that is, management) absolutely agreed with this position. They believed that they needed to stay under the dome for the planned two years at any cost. Another four bionauts argued that it was urgent to request the help of international scientists to understand why oxygen was disappearing. It would also be a good idea to order some air and food from outside.
Jane Poynter, the leader of the group who wanted to ask for help, describes the beginning of the conflict this way: “I was cleaning the animal pens on the farm. My head was terribly dizzy, and I had to rest every minute. In the morning we talked about our situation, and I said that staying here and suffocating is some kind of sectarianism. I thought about all this, then I turned around and saw Abigail standing behind me. She had something in her mouth... The next second she spat in my face! I was confused and asked: “For what?” “Think for yourself,” she answered, turned around and left.”
Meanwhile, ordinary spectators, who came by the busload every day to see what was going on in the giant human aquarium, had no idea what passions were boiling there. They lined up along the wall, sipping cola, munching hot dogs, and the people in futuristic suits behind the glass seemed to them surprisingly spiritual, real heroes of science fiction books and visionaries. Although, by and large, the “visionaries” were simply very tired and hungry.
Exit
In the fall of 1992, the oxygen content under the dome dropped to 14%. Dr. Walford announced that he was resigning from his duties because he was no longer able to add even two-digit numbers in his head. At night, the bionauts constantly woke up, as active photosynthesis of plants stopped, the oxygen level dropped sharply and they began to suffocate. By this moment, all vertebrate animals in the biosphere had died.
A year after the start of the experiment, Allen and Bass decided to depressurize the capsule and add oxygen to the Biosphere’s atmosphere. They also allowed the bionauts to use emergency supplies of grain and vegetables from the seed storage. This significantly improved the general condition of the colonists. However, the two warring groups remained in a state of permanent war, trying not to even talk to each other.
On September 26, 1993, when the airlock was solemnly depressurized and people came out, it was clear from their faces that the experiment had failed - expulsion from paradise had occurred in full and forever. The biosphere turned out to be unsuitable for life.
Meanwhile, journalists who learned about the addition of oxygen to the atmosphere made a huge scandal out of it and dubbed the “Biosphere” the grandiose failure of the century.
So what was this mysterious oxygen problem? When scientists carefully examined the deplorable state of the ruined domes, they came to the conclusion that the cement floors played a fatal role. Oxygen reacted with cement and settled in the form of oxides on the walls. Another active consumer of oxygen is bacteria in the soil. For “Biosphere” they chose the most fertile black soil so that it would have enough natural microelements for many years, but in such soil there were a lot of microorganisms that breathe oxygen in the same way as vertebrates. Scientific journals recognized these discoveries as the main and only achievements of the Biosphere.
After correcting the errors, Allen planned and launched a second mission in 1994. However, it did not last even six months. Bass eventually also became disillusioned with his guru and suddenly stopped funding, which is why the experiment was curtailed at the very beginning.
For many years after this, the “Biosphere” passed from one institute to another, gradually collapsing, until quite recently it was patched up and a tourist attraction was built inside. You can visit the abandoned paradise for just 25 dollars.
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Biospheres-2
In the early 90s, in the American desert of Arizona, a large-scale project was launched, called “Biosphere-2” (“Biosphere-1” is our planet Earth). This artificially created closed biosphere was the first large-scale attempt to simulate the processes occurring in the natural ecosystems of the Earth. According to the authors of the project, the results obtained during the experiment could be very useful during long space flights.
The complex of “greenhouses”, completely isolated from the environment (even atmospheric air) occupied about 1.5 hectares, the volume of the atmosphere of “Biosphere-2” was about 204 thousand m 3 of air. About 3,000 species of animals and plants, as well as 8 representatives of Homo sapiens, were “imprisoned” in a giant “greenhouse”. The intelligent inhabitants of Biosphere 2 had seven different biomes at their disposal: a tropical forest, a desert, a savannah, an ocean with a small coral reef and a mangrove estuary, an agrocenosis in which the colonists grew food (vegetables, fruits and livestock), as well as a residential block. The species composition of living organisms was selected to best simulate the biosphere cycle of substances, including the production and decomposition of organic matter, including the natural decomposition of human waste.
Artificially recreating the Earth's biosphere turned out to be not such a simple matter. The colonists faced many serious problems. One of the main problems was that the plants were unable to produce the required amount of oxygen. The oxygen content in the atmosphere of Biosphere-2 decreased from 21% to 15%, as a result it was necessary to pump in oxygen from the external environment. For two years (from 1991 to 1993), the inhabitants of the artificial biosphere lived in conditions of constant oxygen starvation (climbers experience similar oxygen starvation at an altitude of 4 km). Scientists suggest that soil microorganisms played a significant role in the increased oxygen consumption.
The second problem that people faced was the lack of food. The area of the Biosphere-2 agrocenosis was not enough to provide 8 people with sufficient food. To solve this problem, it was necessary to increase the density of grain sowing, and also plant bananas and papaya in the tropical forest.
The third problem that significantly complicated the life of people in an isolated ecosystem was the uncontrolled increase in the number of insect pests. The food chains of the artificial ecosystems of Biosphere-2 turned out to be incomplete, and the number of insect pests began to grow steadily in the absence of enemies. In the conditions of Biosphere-2, isolated from the external environment, the use of insecticides to combat insect pests is unjustified, since self-purification processes in such small ecosystems are very slow, which means that chemical poisoning of all inhabitants, including people, will occur inevitably. To solve this problem, the colonists had to collect insect pests by hand, as well as breed their natural enemies.
The desert biome did not last long. In the mornings, moisture condensed on the glass roof of Biosphere 2 and fell down like artificial rain. Some time after the start of the experiment, the desert began to be overgrown with grass.
During the experiment, some problems turned out to be quite unexpected. Thus, the lack of wind had a detrimental effect on some types of woody vegetation. In the absence of wind pressure on the trunk and branches of trees, the mechanical tissues of wood turned out to be underdeveloped. As a result, tree trunks and branches became brittle and broke under their own weight.
Since 1996, Biosphere 2 was run by Columbia University, which continued further research, but without human participation. Some biomes of the research complex were accessible to excursionists. In 2005, Biosphere 2 was put up for sale.
You can see what Biosphere-2 is like in 2010 in the photos taken Noah Sheldon.