Science / Medicine : Experimental Biosphere Project Nears Completion
Construction engineers are installing the last panes of glass in the mammoth greenhouse and conducting rigorous tests to guarantee that no air leaks in or out.
Agronomists are planting the 4,000 different species of plants that will grow in the structure and have already harvested three crops of oats, wheat and other staples.
Hydrologists have filled the 35-foot-deep “ocean” with 1 million gallons of man-made and real sea water and are preparing to install its coral reefs. Biologists are readying animals, fish and insects to move into their new home.
Technicians are fine-tuning sophisticated pollution detectors and sensors that are connected to the computer that will monitor the health of the miniature world.
Biosphere II, a $30-million closed environment where eight men and women plan to spend two years closed off from the rest of the world except for sunlight, energy and electronic communications, is nearing completion nearly a full year behind its original goal--but way ahead of the timetable of critics who argued that it would never be completed.
Researchers at Sunspace Ranch just north of Tucson hope to have it finished and ready for its two-year test by early December.
The 2.25-acre structure represents an unprecedented effort by venture capitalists to create a closed environment capable of sustaining itself for long periods. It is a complex model of the type of environment that might eventually be created on the moon or Mars when humans decide to establish a permanent colony.
It is also a test bed for the development of new techniques for purifying air, regenerating waste water and recycling wastes in ways that could be useful not only in space flight but also in correcting the ills of cities on Earth.
The entrepreneurs who are sponsoring the elaborate project hope to recoup their investment by marketing new technologies developed in building Biosphere II (the Earth itself is Biosphere I) and perhaps even by creating copies of it to serve as recreational and educational facilities that, like zoos and arboretums, will teach people about the complex interactions between plants and animals.
But all those thoughts are placed aside for now as the 14 candidate Biospherians--from whom the eight residents will be chosen--oversee the complicated logistics of bringing Biosphere II to life.
Construction of the six ecological habitats in Biosphere II--tropical forest, ocean, marshland, savanna, desert and intensive agriculture--is virtually complete, awaiting only the installation of the last 20% or so of the 6,400 glass panels, each 5 1/2 feet square, that enclose it.
The only thing left to be built is the human habitat: the bedrooms, offices and laboratories where the eight residents will live and work during the experiment. The habitat should be completed in November at the latest, said spokeswoman Kathleen Dyhr.
The identities of the eight candidates who will live in Biosphere II will be revealed in September. The only thing known so far is that there will be four men and four women.
