For Sale: Biosphere 2 54
jangobongo writes "The Texas company that built and owns the Biosphere 2 Center near Tucson, AZ has put the property up for sale. Built at a cost of over $200 million, Biosphere 2 was originally used as a a self-sustaining environment for humans with eight "biospherians" sealing themselves in for two years to see if they could survive without outside intervention. The Biosphere 2 campus consists of a 3.1-acre glass terrarium and 70 other buildings on 140 acres, and includes offices, classrooms, laboratories, residential housing, and a hotel and conference center. Because it is a very expensive place to operate, the more than 85,000 visitors last year were not enough to make money on tourism alone. Potential uses for the property: a religious college, spa, golf resort or even a technology park."
Slashvertisement (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Slashvertisement (Score:2)
did it ever actually work? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:2)
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:2, Insightful)
I wouldn't worry, there's an awful lot of oxygen out there...
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:2)
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:1)
It is a replica for the original biosphere, our planet. The name could have been better. Biodome or Biosphere come to mind as better names.
It is not like people would look at it and say, "Hmmm. It is named 'Biosphere' so it must be our entire planet. Strange that it looks man made. Hmmm, if that is our entire planet, where am I standing?"
Not ended ahead of schedule... (Score:2, Informative)
That is an incorrect statement. There were actually two different "missions" where people were sealed in: the first from September 26, 1991, to September 26, 1993, and the second for six months in 1994. Neither mission was ended prematurely.
They did have an oxygen problem and had to correct it by adding pure oxygen to the environment when oxygen levels dropped too low, though.
Re:Not ended ahead of schedule... (Score:2)
The mission was to have humans live in a sealed environment. They unsealed it. Therefore, didn't the mission end early, whether or not they claim it did?
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:1)
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:4, Informative)
"microbes were using oxygen to metabolize the excess organic matter that had been added to the agricultural, savanna, and rain forest soils to encourage plant growth."
This info comes from the following link that was included at the end of the Wikipedia article:
http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/acsdisplay .html?DOC=vc2%2F2my%2Fmy2_biosphere.html [chemistry.org]
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:1)
Where Earth's O2 comes from (Score:3, Interesting)
Nick Lane's book Oxygen argues that the Earth's oxygen is not a tightly-regulated homeostatic system -- the old saw about the Amazon being the lungs of the Earth. The oxygen in the atmosphere is the result of the small exce
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:2)
Last I heard, the "O" in "CO2" stands for oxygen.
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:2)
OK, IANAC, but I will take a stab at that in case you're serious.
Yes the O does stand for oxygen, but that doesn't matter. For example, just becuase there is oxygen in carbon dioxide doesn't mean that you can breath pure CO2 and live. Read the link I posted; the chemical reaction with the concrete only happens with CO2, not with pure O2. Concrete does not absorb O2, only CO2.
Re:did it ever actually work? (Score:2)
We all know that. So what? When absorbed into the the O and C are incorporated into yet other compounds. It doesn't matter which form they are in, the point is that oxygen atoms are removed from the system, and no longer available for the normal oxygen cycle of the ecosystem.
No way... (Score:2, Funny)
Potential uses (Score:2)
Falls under the category of 'religious college' perhaps, but how about a sect HQ? Hare Krishna, Scientology, Wu Manchu, The Stonecutters Lodge, etc. Funding is also not a problem. Most big sects already have enough ties with big industials, criminal syndicats and Hollywood stars to get their hands on enough money to buy the Biosphere.
Or what about evil masterminds? Doctor Papa could finally get a pied-a-
Railians? (Score:2)
Re:Potential uses (Score:2)
Re:Potential uses (Score:2)
Idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Millionaire + Self-Sustained Environment = Human Hunting Adventure
This is gonna be fun.
Re:Idea (Score:1)
A prison camp totally isolated from the world? (Score:1, Insightful)
Or warehousing, for life "enemy combatants" you don't have the evidence to convict [news.com.au], but can't release because they'll hate you forever for torturing them [newstandardnews.net].
What better for that then a Biosphere literally hermetically sealed from the rest of the world. Perhaps it's even sealed tightly enough to hold in the shame Americans should feel for what's being perpetuated in their names.
Yes, I'm proud to be an American
I took that tour a few years ago... (Score:3, Insightful)
Here's our failed experiment, let's walk around it.
No you can't go in.
But you can go in our GIFT SHOP!
At the time I'm pretty sure there were some college still woring with (read: Funding) the folks there as there aren't too many other places like it on the planet for that kind of biological research. Maybe they ought to seal the thing up & forget about it for a few milennia. Maybe something will evolve its way out.
I took that tour three months ago (Score:5, Informative)
Now you can go inside on the extended tour which lasts 2-3 hours. While I was there, I got to see all the internal areas except one, the "tropical jungle" section of the terrarium, which was completely overgrown because the environment inside was so agreeable with the plants, they just grew like crazy and took over. Our tour got to see the living quarters and the research labs. We went into the terrariums to see the two food garden areas, the section with the "ocean", "savannah", "marsh", and "desert" biomes. We toured under the facility in the basement to see the mechanical aspects, power plant, water recycling, and air handlers. They also took us into one of the two "lungs" of the biosphere, which are a technological feat of engineering designed to accommodate for the expansion and contraction of the internal air as it heats up and cools down.
I came away from the tour very impressed with all the details and a new respect of the whole project, as well as for the eight participants in the 2-year experiment.
This was by no means a "failed experiment", rather a very large learning experiment.
I actually lived there! (Score:4, Interesting)
I was fortunate enough to get to do research there in 2001. The place is absolutely amazing. We didn't actually live inside the Biosphere, there's a trailer/kit house village down past the lungs. The researchers there are literally from all over the globe.
As for the areas you didn't see on the tour, there isn't much to see in the coastal desert, and all of it is visible if you walk around the outside. The agricultural biome was partitioned off into 3 managed forests, since they are not needed for food production. At the time I was there they were ramping up each to different levels of CO2 to see what effect that had (which I guess simulates what would happen if CO2 levels rose significantly on the earth).
The tropical rainforest is sealed off from the tour areas, since that's where the bulk of the 'research' takes place. At the time, we were only allowed to go in twice to check on our experiment, which was a good thing IMO. There's a 'mountain' inside with fans at the top to help air circulate, and yes, the vegetation is very dense, so it is hard to see from the outside. I don't think any significantly sized animals live there anymore. In fact, when they had the first experiment there they had a problem with these primates (I believe they were galagos?) that would climb up the scaffolding in the rainforest biome, slip, and fall to their deaths right next to the outside windows. Of course, the PR people and the tour groups were not impressed when they would see all these dead 'monkeys' pressed up against the glass. So they had to go. I think the only larger animals that did remarkably well were in the oceans.
The AC is right when they say this was a very large "learning experiment" rather than a failed one. Even though they had many problems, they were handled in a controlled way and accounted for in the experiment and the data they took. If anything, the problems helped them learn more, since those are the types of unexpected things colonists in space will deal with.
This site [biospheres.com] has some good photos of the different biomes and the living/mechanical areas. If anyone has any questions or wants to know more of the 'unofficial history' let me know and I'll try to field them
Re:I actually lived there! (Score:1)
Reality Show (Score:4, Insightful)
If done today, I'm sure its a smash hit, think of a mix of big brother + truman show.
Re:Reality Show (Score:1)
There was a reality show of it. (Score:2)
Re:There was a reality show of it. (Score:2)
Yes, almost by definition he won. Because everyone else loses with Pauly Shore movies.
Re:Reality Show (Score:2)
Blast it off into space [imdb.com] and make art into reality (sort of). Sadly this film is not replayed on Space, Scream or DriveInClassics yet. As an aside, I've heard that Scream was moving into the states - any news on this? Jane Meikle [screamtelevision.ca] is great and Scream has a funny "expose" on her real life.
Self sustaining. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Self sustaining. (Score:1)
Re:Self sustaining. (Score:2)
An Idea (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:An Idea (Score:2)
Re:An Idea (Score:2)
T
Re:An Idea (Score:2)
Columbia U has a big investment in this. (Score:1)
You'd think they'd be pretty pissed given the money they've put into it. Dollars to doughnuts the University they mentioned talking to in the article is Columbia.
I know how to make it self-sustaining... (Score:2)
Now that the thing is built and we have time, let's not micromanage the biosphere and just let it live. I think tha
Re:I know how to make it self-sustaining... (Score:2, Funny)
The little green men have already been there and done that. So far Homo Sapiens are leading, but they have a nasty tendency to wipe themselves out. We're cheering for the dolphins, they're a 2:1 lock.
Re:I know how to make it self-sustaining... (Score:1)
Don't forget to make it realistic. Nothing that survives in that environment is necessarily going to help us. First, make sure that you pump in a healthy dose of pollutants. Whatever lives (and is not toxic) under those circumstances would be helpful.
Possible "bunch of stuff" list items to include:
Lead bar shavings (in the water supply)
Motor oil (also in the water suppl
Re: (Score:2)
BIOS-3 (Score:1, Interesting)
Satelite image of property (Score:1)