Abstract: What we are learning from B2 about B1 and beyond
If you wish to study the underlying causes of a specific disease, you start by examining an animal model that would simulate the humancondition. Suppose you want to study a subset of geological events on earth, Biosphere 1 (B1). In that case, you might design a miniature system, but what do you do if you want to study the earth’s entire complex geology, environment, and ecology? Well, you build
Biosphere 2. And so, in 1987, a vision was born to assemble steel, concrete, soil, seawater, and plants to create a model of Biosphere 1 consisting of five biomes and eight humans who would live for two years. While this unprecedented experiment’s outcome was not what was anticipated, the idea was sound, the concepts testable, the facility unique, and the science eventually became rigorous, exciting, and yielding results applicable not only to B1, our earth, but also to possibilities of imitating B1 extraterrestrially. Today, B2 is the largest earth science living laboratory, and precise scientific explorations are underway as part of the University of Arizona’s mission. A major driving force is the question: "How do biological communities organize and respond to landscape evolution and environmental change?". It is a highly complex initiative that encompasses the intricate interactions of the "Earth's system consisting of water, air, soil, plants, microbes, and animals." One specific project designed to address these complex interactions is the LEO project, the Landscape Evolution Observatory, the world’s largest laboratory experiment in the interdisciplinary Earth sciences. The potential for extraterrestrial habitats is not just a distant dream but a tangible reality that Biosphere 2's research is helping to bring closer.
Additionally, we are on the verge of becoming an interplanetary species, and both private and public endeavors are working together to return to the Moon and establish a human presence on Mars. Once we live on the Moon, Mars, or a distant moon of Jupiter, we can no longer conduct immediate rescue. Therefore, sustainable, primarily self-contained ecosystems must be realized to perfection, with mechanical life support systems as backup only. Today at Biosphere 2, we have built upon the 1987 Test Module, the prototype for Biosphere 2, to create SAM, a high-fidelity Mars habitat analog. Research teams visiting SAM can perform missions for as brief as five days or as long as several weeks. They choose their level of fidelity, from a quantified pass-through airflow to a fully hermetic seal. SAM integrates a greenhouse (the Test Module), workshop, kitchen, bath, common area, and sleeping quarters. A CO2 scrubber provides mechanical life support. A pass-through airlock leads to an adjacent half-acre Mars yard where rovers, pressure suits, and tools can be tested over varied terrain and obstacles and within a synthetic lava tube. Living on the Moon, Mars, and in deep space will demand constant improvements in our systems.
So, whether you are interested in geology, water conservation, carbon dioxide (greenhouse gases) production and sequestration, global climate change, or whether your interests lie in a "place far, far away", you will find this overview presented by John Adams, Deputy Director of Biosphere 2, most interesting, enlightening and impactful. As the administrative and research overseer of B2, Adams has his finger on the pulse of the many research projects and educational initiatives of this unique unit of the University of Arizona. In this talk, Adams will discuss some of these projects and how they impact our understanding of our biosphere—Earth.