ORACLE, ARIZONA (dpa) – At its start 10 years ago Biosphere 2 was intended as a test to see whether humans could survive on Mars and other planets.
Four men and four women attempted to survive totally cut off from the outside world for a two-year period, but the project failed. The participants simply needed outside help too often.
Nevertheless the research project in the Arizona desert continues under the auspices of New York’s Columbia University.
Scientists from all over the world work on a variety of environmental issues in the area, although the conditions since the start in September 1991 have changed considerably.
The first research teams entered the dome and stayed there for the required two years, more or less cut off from the outside world, despite a string of mishaps. But today researchers come and go as they please.
The first inhabitants called themselves bionauts, and their aim was to survive without the assistance or influence from the world at large – apart from sunlight.
A world in miniature, with rainforest, desert, savannah, a sea and fields for agriculture had been established over the four years before they moved in.
The bionauts survived the two years laid down, but not without having the system opened to outside influences on 20 separate occasions. The oxygen level sank below that required for sustaining healthy life and had to be topped up.
The experiment aimed at preparing humans for life on a long journey to Mars was seen as an expensive failure – it had attracted considerable controversy in the scientific world even before then.
Texan oil billionaire Edward Bass was behind the project. He pumped around 150 million dollars into his ambitious sci-fi undertaking that had been conceived in the 1970s in a commune in Sante Fe in New Mexico.
Initially highly respected researchers were to participate in the hi-tech project, but many abandoned it, among them staff attached to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Bass and the Bionauts lacked the necessary scientific knowledge, many said, and Biosphere 2 was soon tainted with New Age flakiness. Internal dissension and public arguments hit its reputation, as did sabotage and one technical hitch after another.
Ants imported into the dome spread with alarming rapidity, becoming a plague to the inhabitants, whereas the bees introduced in order to pollinate the plants simply died out. The Bionauts were then forced to pollinate everything by hand.
In March 1994, seven Bionauts moved in, but the experiment was ended after just half a year, as its usefulness was already in doubt.
But at this stage Columbia University became involved, and since 1996 this institution of considerable repute has supervised the scientific research. The current team leader is Charles Barry Osmond.
Experiments are continuing into plant growth and photosynthesis, using digital cameras to observe minute details on leaves.
At the beginning of last year, Columbia and Bass, who remains owner, decided together to prolong the Biosphere 2 project for a further 10 years – it was originally intended to last 100 years.
The aim is to extend the experiments on flora and fauna, and to augment the student programme.
Another factor is that Biosphere 2 has become an important Arizona tourist attraction, drawing 180,000 visitors a year, each paying 13 dollars for a tour of the outer facility.
For an additional 10 dollars, those interested are allowed into the dome itself.
Information is available at www.bio2.edu
