Conference hydra::dejavu

RE .0

I believe the money is mostly private.

Biosphere I is Earth.

jj

    :-)... yep, thats what I think too.

    
    Mike,
    
    I heard of that a while ago, but basically all you entered is what I
    heard.  Will take a look through my past indexes of Science News to see
    if there's anything there.
    
    Cindy

    Re: last few...
    
         Also check Popular Science Mag a few months back.  sorry, don't
    remember which issue.  It had a very interesting and informative
    article in it about Biosphere II.  The photos are excellant.  I'd die
    for the opprotunity to be involved in something like this. 
         I don't remember much, but the Biosphere is quite large.  it
    contains among many other things that I'm sure I've forgotten:
    A Living Ocean
    Cliffs
    Desert
    Wilderness
    and as you mentioned a variety of flora & fauna
    I think the Vietnamiese (sp?) Pot-Belly pig is one of the animals that
    will inhabit the ecosystem.  of course, all this is scaled down
    dramatically!
    
                                                        Capt. Scott
    

  Yes, it's to be quite large, covering something like 3 acres of land,
  and having, as you mentioned, a real salt-water sea (powered by an
  ingenious wave machine), and air-conditioned -- this last not for the
  comfort of the inhabitants, but to keep temperatures inside the sealed
  dome from hitting 190 F degrees. It's to have millions of dollars of
  computer equipment to monitor every aspect of the environment --
  certainly oxygen levels of the atmosphere, but all sorts of other
  things, too. They interviewed some of the "fauna" who were to
  participate in the experiment, and asked the burning question about
  "coupling", to which the answer was "none of your business" :-).

  Does anyone know when they're scheduled to start (seal) it? This, to
  me, is as interesting as any launch of the space shuttle.

    There was a film on it on CNN news this weekend.  Apparently, it was
    supposed to be completed last month but they ran into some
    constructions problems.  They showed the eight people who have been
    training for the last two years to participate in the experiment.
    The complex was huge and impressive, will be interesting to watch what
    happens.
    
    Ro
    

    Biosphere II is built at Oracle Junction, AZ, about 25 miles around the
    Catalina Mountains from Tucson, where I live.  I know some folks who
    were involved in the construction project.  It hasn't been sealed yet,
    but any week now.  Biosphere I is definitely Mother Earth.
    
    A little known fact about the 'private money' that financed it.. I
    forget their names, but it's two brothers from Texas, made big bux in
    oil, and who have funded lots of research about space stations at the
    Legrange points.  So some people here theorize that the results of
    Biosphere II will be folded into and eventually used for self
    sufficient space stations.  
    
    My family is planning a day trip to Oracle over the Xmas holidays. 
    Should be interesting !
    
    karl

  Wonder if it's the same two brothers who were involved in a silver-
  trading scandal around ten years ago? They really made the headlines
  for a while.

    In that case, it would be the Hunt brothers.  In the matter of the
    silver dealings, they were accused of activities not normally
    considered illegal.
    
    							Ann B.

    re .8 re 7... it's not the Hunt bros., it's the Bass brothers. 
    couldn't recall until today..
    
    karl

    DISCOVER Magazine, either the October or November issue has a
    wonderful article in it about Biosphere II and Earthquakes on
    the East Coast.
    
    If anyone wants to read it, and is unable to get a copy contact
    me at Bunkie Butler @ALF and I will xerox and send you a copy of
    the article.
    
    B2

    
    I saw a Phil Donahue program about (and at) Biosphere II.  It was
    fascinating.  It is a large construction, three acres sounds about
    right.  They had several ecosystems in there, including a living ocean 
    and a desert.  The ocean has wave motion simulated, and there is a
    sandy beach.  There are extensive gardens, and some animals.  I
    remember Tilapia fish for the rice fields, and the pigs mentioned in an
    earlier note.  
    
    What was really fascinating was that NOTHING is going to go in or out
    of that construction for two years.  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  The air they
    breathe is even being recycled.  There is a huge device, a bubble
    shaped facility that has recreated a diaphragm/lung system.  It
    recycles the air.  Their waste is also being recycled, and there is a
    doctor (M.D.) going in with them.  They are taking in whatever
    entertainment they each want (TV, stereo, books, mags, etc).  
    
    People did seem to be fascinated with the "coupling" possibilities. 
    None of the 8 scientists/doctors are married.  That was about all they
    would say on the subject. 
    
    They've had to carefully select items such as shampoo and soap so as to
    not contaminate their world.  They expect only a miniscule amount of
    leakage in terms of outside air.  In an earlier experiment, people have
    spent something like two months in the Biosphere II already, and their
    first comment on coming out was "It smells funny out here."
    
    I'll be watching for information on this as they begin the adventure.
    Sounds like fun!
    
    
    

    
    Interesting note on the "biosphere II" project I saw the otherday.....
    they have been forced to delete the "vietnamese" potbellied pigs in
    favor of a feril pig from down south somewheres. Seems the pet contigent
    and pet pig raisers assiciation or some such took issue with their
    intended use of pet quality porkers for protein. These are not bacon/ham
    pigs they (The pet pig people) said..these are lard pigs.
    
    Should be a interesting two years. While physically isolated they will
    be connected by various electronic communications and will likely have 
    HBO and Cenemax if they want it as well as telephone and terminal contact
    with the outside. As for romance.....who knows..two years in a large
    fishtank with anyone will no doubt make for challenging and interesting 
    relationships....
    
     Cheers
    
     Read only Ed!
    

  Caught another tidbit on TV over the holidays ... apparently, the
  experiment is intended to last 100 years or so (if possible). The
  first group of humans will come out after two years (if they want to,
  I guess :-), but more will go in at that time, assuming the ecosystem
  is still viable.

I have just one question - isn't 3 acres just a little small for all it will 
hold?  I mean, I've seen 3 one acre lots side by side, and it just doesn't seem
like you could fit all that is described into that space, unless they are using
multi-tiers or some other spacing techniques.  Just the body of water would take
up most of the 3 acres.

Beth

    re: -1 
    
         The "ocean" was pretty small and contained in only 1/3 of
    the sphere...just guessing, I say about 1/2 an acre.
    
                                                          Capt. Scott

	Given the current world situation, I think that Biosphere II would
	be one of the safest places on earth, until everyone in the
	vicinity realises this and tries to break in!

	Delia

A documentary on Biosphere 2 was shown on UK TV last week. It was called "Will
Apples Grow on Mars?" If it turns up on US TV, it's well worth watching. It
consists mostly of interviews with the technicians setting up the various
"biomes" (I'm not sure about the spelling - this is a phonetic rendering of what
I heard). A biome is the name given to the various artificial environments being
created: ocean, rainforest, desert, savannah, marsh (can't remember what the
others were).

Chrs

    RTw  09/26 2100  BIOSPHERIANS ADJUST TO LIFE BACK ON EARTH

    By Michael Miller

    ORACLE, Arizona, Sept 26 (Reuter) - The eight-member crew of Biosphere
    2 were adjusting to life back on earth after two years in a 20th
    century Noah's Ark.

    They left the world's largest test tube on Sunday after setting a
    record for staying in a sealed environment.

    "It's going to be different. Already I feel sort of strange," said
    Sally Silverstone, a systems specialist from England, and one of the
    two crew co-captains.

    Jayne Poynter, an agriculturist who was in charge of the crops and farm
    animals inside the enclosure, said she would miss the day-to-day
    contact with her charges.

    "As I milked the goats this morning and fed the chickens there was a
    lump in my throat," she said.

    Eight new crew members will take over the biosphere in February 1994
    for another two-year mission, and 60 scientists from all over the world
    will carry out analyses of the progress of the last two years.

    Only one of the four-man, four-woman crew is not staying in the
    permanent employ of Space Biosphere Ventures, the privately owned
    company that operates the biosphere.

    Dr Ray Walford, an expert on ageing and the oldest biospherian at 69,
    will resume running a laboratory on ageing at the University of
    California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

    The biospherians left behind them more than a thousand species of
    insects, birds, animals and fish in Biosphere 2, which is intended as
    the prototype for a manned colony on Mars.

    They also hoped they had left behind a welter of criticism --
    complaints that the project was scientifically invalid and not much
    more than a giant publicity stunt with moneymaking as the main object.

    More than 100,000 paying visitors a year have braved the desert heat to
    see Biosphere 2 and watch the crew at work from the vantage point of
    huge windows.

    "They said it couldn't be done. Well, here we are, healthy and happy,"
    said  Mark Nelson, a biologist and a co-founder of Space Biosphere
    Ventures as a crowd of 2,000 greeted the biospherians as they emerged
    on Sunday

    During their time in the biosphere, the crew set a new record for
    living in a closed system, surpassing the previous record of six months
    set by Russian researchers.

    The four men and four women, who are all single, grew 80 percent of
    their own food, the other 20 percent being obtained from stores placed
    in the biosphere before they entered.

    They studied, insects, animals birds and fish in five artificially
    created environments; a tropical rain forest, a tropical savannah, a
    marsh, a desert and an ocean.

    Biosphere 2, a huge glass and steel structure nestling in the
    gully-riddled foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains 40 miles (64
    km) north of Tucson, consists of a series of seven connected domes and
    spires, some rising five stories tall.

    The 7.2-million-cubic-foot (2.19 million cubic metres) enclosure has
    four acres of glass and is the second largest terrarium, the largest
    being Earth itself, which the designers refer to as Biosphere 1.

    The other biospherians are Abigail Alling, Linda Leigh, Taber MacCallum 
    and  Mark Van Thillo.

    REUTER

What, no coupling? :-)

I curious what useful findings will come of the experiment. One thing
which surprised me was that 20% of their food had been stored before
the system was sealed. If they actually depended on that 20%, it would
be a bad sign for the long-term viability of a truly self-sufficient system.

    The Boston Sunday Globe Magazine had a piece on Biosphere II.  The
    reporter spent 24 hours in a "test module," essentially a somewhat
    restricted subset of the actual Biosphere II.
    
    Someone posted to Usenet a list of items imported into Biosphere II
    over the course of the experiment.  It included (in addition to
    oxygen infusions) things like peanuts and other food items, as well
    as various tools.
    
    An interesting experiment, overall.  Maybe they'll have better
    scientific rigor with the second batch of people.
    
    Mark

i believe it was in this week's "Time" - a short (mostly unsubstantial) article
about the Biosphere - the author noted that none of the participants are talk-
ing about (blush) "coupling" although one of the Biospherans commented
(something to the effect of) "we weren't all angels in here".

also, the next crew will be in for 1 year, not for 2.

--Angela

> also, the next crew will be in for 1 year, not for 2.

Still plenty of time. The gestation period for Homo Sapiens is only 40 weeks.

    Copyright 1994. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. 

    ORACLE, Ariz. (AP) -- The Biosphere 2 story has always been less
    science than soap opera: Could eight people survive for two years
    sealed off from the outside world in a high-tech ecological bubble?  

    Survive they did. However, the project's credibility with the public
    and mainstream scientists suffered; organizers delayed or downplayed
    setbacks like crop failures and losses of oxygen in the glass
    compound's atmosphere.  

    Now, as the private, for-profit project prepares to send in a second
    crew March 6, organizers are abandoning the policy that drew the
    world's attention in the first place.  

    Instead of completely sealing the 3-acre dome in the desert north of
    Tucson, they'll allow scientists and eventually other visitors to enter
    for short stays. A permanent crew will live inside, but its members
    will change periodically like a relay team, officials of Space
    Biospheres Ventures said Feb. 11.  

    The change received qualified endorsements from some mainstream
    scientists who have been critical of Biosphere.  

    "If you want to do science, you have to have that kind of flexibility,
    and it doesn't spoil the experiment," said Thomas Lovejoy, vice
    president for external affairs of the Smithsonian Institution. Lovejoy
    was the chair of an outside advisory committee that examined the
    project but then resigned over differences with project managers.  

    "As long as you measure what you take in and take out, you have a valid
    experiment going," Lovejoy said.  

    Biosphere 2's first "mission" ended Sept. 26, when four men and four
    women emerged after two years of tending and studying the giant
    terrarium, which holds a miniature farm, rain forest, marsh, ocean,
    savannah and desert.  

    The inhabitants -- "Biosphereans" in the New Age terminology of the
    project -- managed to raise 80 percent of the food they needed. One
    crew member had to leave briefly for finger surgery after an accident.
    The atmosphere had to be balanced with carbon dioxide-scrubbing
    equipment and oxygen injections instead of the natural interplay of
    plants and animals as planned.  

    "The idea they had initially -- which was, 'Hey we're going to seal
    these eight people up in glass' -- sounded dramatic," said NASA
    scientist Gerald Soffen, another member of the disbanded advisory
    panel.  

    "The press loved it, and the public loved it. But they fell out of love
    as soon as they cracked the door. ... The real question is, 'Can you
    sustain an environment?"'  

    In the last five months, all the plants in the glass-and-steel
    structure have been surveyed and several mechanical systems upgraded.  

    A crew of seven to be sealed in March 6 includes Norberto Alvarez-Romo,
    an SBV vice president who plans to spend four months inside. After he
    leaves, three outside scientists are expected to make short-term visits
    in the next year, said Margret Augustine, president of Space Biospheres
    Ventures.  

    Teachers, technical specialists, managers, environmentalists, even
    business people will be eligible for stays of a few weeks to months.  

    Members of the base crew will have staggered stays of several months to
    more than a year in the dome, which has apartments to sleep 10. All
    non-emergency visitors will have to work on the farm, even a doctor
    who's scheduled to make a "house call" three months after the crew
    takes up residence.  

    "This new policy makes Biosphere 2 into a research laboratory," said
    research director John Corliss. "The important thing now is we can make
    use of scientists going into the Biosphere and making their own
    observations."  

    Designed to run for 100 years, the $150 million project is financed
    largely by Texas tycoon Edward Bass and is run as a for-profit research
    operation and tourist attraction.  

    Biosphere 2 could begin living up to its promise if reputable outside
    scientists take advantage of the new policy, NASA's Soffen said from
    Greenbelt, Md.  

    "If they really do that in an honest way it'll bring some real
    information," Soffen said. "I think they could learn some science and I
    think they could improve their credibility." 

    AP 03/06 17:06 EST V0610

    Copyright 1994. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. 

    ORACLE, Ariz. (AP) -- As hundreds cheered, seven people from five
    countries stepped through an airlock Sunday for the second mission
    inside Biosphere 2.  

    The low-key sendoff marked a new research phase for the domed
    ecological lab as an earnest scientific tool. A policy change now
    allows scientists in for short-term projects.  

    Harvard zoology professor Stephen J. Gould told the five men and two
    women that the "second time is time is the hardest, and also in a key
    respect the most important" -- with consistency the goal and science
    still watching the outcome. 

    The crew comes from Mexico, Nepal, Australia, England and the United
    States. All but one will stay inside the 3-acre glass-and-steel bubble
    for at least 10 1/2 months.  

    Norberto Alvarez-Romo, 40, a native of Mexico and a vice president of
    Space Biospheres Ventures, the experiment's operator, will stay 120
    days.  

    Officials say the 2 1/2-year-old, $150 million project, backed by Texas
    billionaire Edward Bass and designed to run for 100 years, will carry
    on continously, like a remote research station, with rotating crews.  

    The project is private and for-profit. Its goals include finding ways
    to solve Earth's environmental problems and developing technological
    applications for commercial spinoffs.  

    The ceremony drew far less media interest than the first crew's Sept.
    26, 1991, sendoff for a two-year stay.  

    "The eyes of the world aren't on you any more, but the eyes of science
    are, and the hopes of the world are," Gould said.  

    Other crew members: John Druitt, of England; Matthew Finn, 35, of
    Washington, D.C.; Pascale Maslin, 34, of Australia; Charlotte Godfrey,
    22, of Tucson; Rodrigo Fernandez del Valle, 24, of Mexico, and Tilak
    Ram Mahato, 30, of Nepal. 

    Biosphere 2 has rain forest, ocean, savannah, desert-turned-chaparral,
    marsh, a farm and 10 one-person apartments. It is sealed from the
    outside world; the crew raises its food and recycles air, water and
    wastes.  

    Between missions, lights were installed over the farm to improve winter
    food production.  

    During the first mission, Biosphere 2 lost credibility with the public
    and scientists because of various mishaps and unexpected developments.
    Claims about its self-sufficiency were deflated as crops failed and
    food was supplemented with previously stored crops and seed. Oxygen was
    pumped in to sustain the crew, and prominent scientists on its advisory
    panel quit. 
       

    AP 04/12 23:14 EDT V0406

    Copyright 1994. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. 

    TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- More than a dozen non-crew members entered the
    sealed Biosphere 2 after this month's break-in, project officials said
    Tuesday.  

    In another development, Norberto Alvarez-Romo returned to his job as
    Space Biospheres Ventures vice president of mission control.  

    Alvarez-Romo had left his post as a short-term crew member Friday
    because of an emergency involving his wife, ousted Space Biospheres
    president Margret Augustine.  

    The $150 million private ecological experiment was broken into April 4.
    Doors to the glass-and-steel structure were left open to let in outside
    air.  

    Fourteen people, including health workers and security personnel, spent
    about three hours inside Biosphere 2, the company said in a statement.  

    Dr. Jack Corliss, director of science for the project, said the number
    of extra people breathing inside Biosphere 2 would have had negligible
    impact on its separate atmosphere.  

    The crew raises its own food and recycles wastes, water and air at the
    sealed three-acre site near Oracle, 35 miles northeast of Tucson.  

    Two people from the project's first crew, Abigail Alling and Mark Van
    Thillo, face felony charges in the break-in. The pair, who spent two
    years inside the complex before leaving Sept. 26, have since been
    fired.  

    Their attorney has said they acted out of concern for crew safety.
    They're charged with burglary, criminal trespassing and criminal
    damage.  

    The incident occurred after a federal judge on March 31 suspended
    Augustine, the president and chief executive officer of SBV, and five
    other top managers. The order came at the request of project financier
    Edward Bass, a Texas billionaire who contends there has been
    mismanagement and waste.