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Therefore, we need to create our own artificial biospheres that can be inhabited by humans in space or on other planets: closed ecosystems with their own oxygen, plants, and everything we need to sustain life. Ambitious attempts have been made on Earth, including the infamous Biosphere 2.
Biosphere 2 (Biosphere 1 is Earth), with a cost of 150 to 200 million. It is a desert research facility in Arizona, USA, which for some time sought to be a closed ecosystem that recreated many aspects of the Earth.
The 1.27 hectare complex, built of steel and glass, was home to 3,800 species of plants and animals with eight people (four females and four males) who relied on grown food and oxygen necessary to survive.
The project was planned to last two years, but the problems started from the beginning.
The first closed mission lasted from 1991. September 26 to 1993 September 26 The inhabitants of the biosphere were: physician and researcher Roy Walford, Jane Poynter, Taber MacCallum, Mark Nelson, Sally Silverstone, Abigail Alling, Mark Van Thillo and Linda Leigh.
Just two weeks after the mission, one of the residents, Jane Poynter, was trapped in a rice threshing machine that cut off the tip of her finger. The biosphere medic was able to re-stitch it, but soon decided it needed surgery outside of the dome. Returning later that day, reserves were found in it, which turned out not to be the only secret reserve that the biosphere population would face.
The food sphere did not grow fast enough to feed the population and everyone began to lose weight. The crops grew too slow and required a lot of labor. For example, it took several weeks for the coffee bushes to make a cup of coffee. In a matter of months, they were forced to invade emergency food supplies unknown to the outside world.
Pollinators (hummingbirds and bees) have died, further exacerbating agricultural problems. Ten months after the project, the Advisory Council issued a damning report on the situation and the lack of scientific expertise of the members involved. Then the advisory board withdrew.
What was even worse was that the oxygen level in the biosphere began to drop, and no one at the time could understand exactly why. 1993 In January, nine months before the experiment, oxygen levels fell to about 15 percent. – this corresponds to an altitude of 3660 meters above sea level.
“You wanted to climb mountains. Sleep apnea has started in some residents. I noticed that I couldn’t finish a long sentence without stopping and breathing air. We work in a kind of slow-motion dance. If the oxygen level had dropped below, serious health problems could have arisen, ”said one participant.
In addition, the biosphere has become a tourist destination, guarded like a zoo to offset costly expenses. Starving and trying to breathe, the cockroaches began to grow and the mites attacked their crops.
The unit of the group collapsed, they began to throw cups and spit at each other. Because morale was so low, it was decided that residents should receive food, as well as secret seeds and vitamins, which were secretly delivered to the compound every two weeks.
Half of the crew wanted to continue without outside supplies and the other half wanted things like “food” and “breathing.” It was decided that oxygen and food should be supplied to the group living the rest of their time in their closed sustainable habitat, receiving supplies and air from outside.
However, the project has not yet been completed. Steve Bannon (who later became an advisor to former President Donald Trump) in 1993. took over the execution of the project.
The second mission began in 1994. March 6, scheduled for ten months. The group consisted of Norberto Alvarez-Romo, John Druitt, Matt Finn, Pascale Maslin, Charlotte Godfrey, Rodrigo Romo and Tilak Mahato. The second crew reached full food production sufficiency.
When members of the first mission found out about the second mission, their concerns about the safety of the people inside increased. 1994 April 4 Two former members of the first mission, Abigail Alling and Mark Van, made their way to the dome early in the morning, opening doors and smashing panes of glass to allow outside air to enter the biosphere. After this incident, the second mission was finished.
No one has lived in Biosphere 2 since then. The complex is currently owned by the University of Arizona, which conducts a variety of research on the biosphere.
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