Biosphere 2
May 18, 2025 9:22 AM Subscribe
"No one had ever built a sealed ecological world as big as Biosphere 2, and no one had ever survived so long inside one. The project would later be dismissed as a folly and a waste of effort. And yet, 25 years on, it’s an experiment worth rediscovering. Biosphere 2 might have some lessons to offer about managing Biosphere 1 — our planet."
MetaFilter: I don't think we accomplished much
posted by Lemkin at 10:04 AM on May 18 [8 favorites]
posted by Lemkin at 10:04 AM on May 18 [8 favorites]
Biosphere 2 was a failure, but it had an actual, achievable goal. Can you imagine if instead of wasting their money on rocket ships or flying cars or whatever, the billionaires had instead tried to have a biosphere race? There's a good chance we would have cracked this by now.
(and edit: Biosphere 2 was the original solarpunk. there, i said it)
posted by phooky at 10:23 AM on May 18 [8 favorites]
(and edit: Biosphere 2 was the original solarpunk. there, i said it)
posted by phooky at 10:23 AM on May 18 [8 favorites]
The problem with managing our biosphere is not a lack of scientific understanding. We know (collectively, broadly) how to take care of it and keep it habitable. We've known for over a hundred years that we'd warm the planet to dangerous levels with all our fossil fuel use, and it hasn't helped much at all.
The main problem is that people who know how to take care of it are powerless to keep the greedy capitalists from destroying it in their lust for profit. I don't think any biosphere experiments will help us figure out how to manage that problem, unless maybe we build an exact clone of Biosphere 2 for all the CEOs and billionaires and put it on the moon.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:30 AM on May 18 [9 favorites]
The main problem is that people who know how to take care of it are powerless to keep the greedy capitalists from destroying it in their lust for profit. I don't think any biosphere experiments will help us figure out how to manage that problem, unless maybe we build an exact clone of Biosphere 2 for all the CEOs and billionaires and put it on the moon.
posted by SaltySalticid at 10:30 AM on May 18 [9 favorites]
They did learn at least one useful thing though: exposed concrete results in oxygen disappearing, a life-threatening amount. Or maybe it was the intensely organic soil. Anyway, terrariums: difficult to stabilize!
the trouble was not merely inside, but a fundamental component of the bubble
posted by logicpunk at 10:41 AM on May 18
the trouble was not merely inside, but a fundamental component of the bubble
posted by logicpunk at 10:41 AM on May 18
That thing about how they built it but didn't bother calibrating the sensors... Just wow
I agree that getting a project like this working reasonably well with reasonable stability ought to be considered a prereq for serious efforts at crewed space exploration.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 10:45 AM on May 18 [3 favorites]
I agree that getting a project like this working reasonably well with reasonable stability ought to be considered a prereq for serious efforts at crewed space exploration.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 10:45 AM on May 18 [3 favorites]
See also Yuegong-1, aka Lunar Palace 1. This space.com article has a diagram and a photo. It is much less physically impressive than Biosphere 2, which always reminded me of the USS Cygnus from The Black Hole. Or, you know, a giant conservatory. Biosphere 2 is quite visible as a sprawling complex down on the desert floor if you ever find yourself hiking in the mountains near there.
There's also MELiSSA, the ESA closed ecosytem project. I don't think they are at the locking people up in a room stage yet, but here's their website.
The lack of funding for closed loop ecosystems is a good sign of how serious the billionaires are not when it comes to colonizing Mars or the Moon or nearby space. Being able to, you know, actually live in a space habitat indefinitely seems like foundational technology to me. Also I don't think it is established science whether or not a small closed loop ecosystem could be stable indefinitely. If it were true that a simple collection of inexpensive plants and microbes could provide easy-to-maintain life support at small scales, then, well, there's your high frontier dreams realized. And if it's not true, then space will always be a bleak dystopia where the billionaires control the life support.
Speaking of DIY closed life support systems, the youtube channel Joel Creates made these two videos on basic life support last year: How Many Plants do you Need to Breathe? TESTED and the sequel How Much Algae do you Need to Breathe? TESTED. If you don't have the time, first he fails at building a life support system, then he succeeds at building a failing life support system, and the whole thing is more difficult than you might naively think. Or maybe it's easier than you might naively think. I certainly had both thoughts, and appreciated that the guy just went for it, without the cult/spend-millions-of-dollars aspect that Biosphere 2 had.
posted by surlyben at 10:57 AM on May 18 [14 favorites]
There's also MELiSSA, the ESA closed ecosytem project. I don't think they are at the locking people up in a room stage yet, but here's their website.
The lack of funding for closed loop ecosystems is a good sign of how serious the billionaires are not when it comes to colonizing Mars or the Moon or nearby space. Being able to, you know, actually live in a space habitat indefinitely seems like foundational technology to me. Also I don't think it is established science whether or not a small closed loop ecosystem could be stable indefinitely. If it were true that a simple collection of inexpensive plants and microbes could provide easy-to-maintain life support at small scales, then, well, there's your high frontier dreams realized. And if it's not true, then space will always be a bleak dystopia where the billionaires control the life support.
Speaking of DIY closed life support systems, the youtube channel Joel Creates made these two videos on basic life support last year: How Many Plants do you Need to Breathe? TESTED and the sequel How Much Algae do you Need to Breathe? TESTED. If you don't have the time, first he fails at building a life support system, then he succeeds at building a failing life support system, and the whole thing is more difficult than you might naively think. Or maybe it's easier than you might naively think. I certainly had both thoughts, and appreciated that the guy just went for it, without the cult/spend-millions-of-dollars aspect that Biosphere 2 had.
posted by surlyben at 10:57 AM on May 18 [14 favorites]
Old news, but in 2018 the International Space Station received an upgrade from the European Space Agency.
ESA’s new Advanced Closed Loop System will recycle carbon dioxide on the Space Station into oxygen. Currently oxygen on the Space Station is extracted from water that has to be brought from Earth, a costly and limiting drawback. The new system promises to recycle half of the carbon dioxide thereby saving about 400 litres of water sent to the Space Station each year.posted by fairmettle at 11:26 AM on May 18 [5 favorites]
“If you consider the Advanced Closed Loop System as an investment we expect to recuperate costs in just a couple of years as less launches to the Space Station will be needed to supply water” says ESA’s technical lead for the project, Johannes Witt.
And if it's not true, then space will always be a bleak dystopia where the billionaires control the life support.
Isn't it weird how so many people find it easier to imagine lots of humans colonizing space than to imagine we escape from capitalism?
posted by SaltySalticid at 12:00 PM on May 18 [9 favorites]
Isn't it weird how so many people find it easier to imagine lots of humans colonizing space than to imagine we escape from capitalism?
posted by SaltySalticid at 12:00 PM on May 18 [9 favorites]
Isn't it weird how so many people find it easier to imagine lots of humans colonizing space than to imagine we escape from capitalism?
Billionaires or whoever controls the life support. As it stands now, life support in space is absurdly expensive and difficult, which makes it a sort of choke point that stops people from just fucking off into the wilderness to escape whatever tyrant is in charge, which is at least theoretically possible here on earth. And of course it's not the only such choke point. Space colonies are very much a "if we had some eggs, we could have eggs and ham, if we had some ham" kind of thing.
posted by surlyben at 12:21 PM on May 18 [3 favorites]
Billionaires are for space travel because the promise of space travel, however thoroughly we think we've discounted it even in our own minds, saves us from the bone deep understanding that Earth is all there is for us, and that we must not continue to destroy it the way we're doing right now.
Because if we did develop such understanding, billionaires and the ways they've made their money could not continue to exist.
posted by jamjam at 12:23 PM on May 18 [9 favorites]
Because if we did develop such understanding, billionaires and the ways they've made their money could not continue to exist.
posted by jamjam at 12:23 PM on May 18 [9 favorites]
FREE MAHI-MAHI! FREE MAHI-MAHI!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:34 PM on May 18 [2 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:34 PM on May 18 [2 favorites]
Billionaires are for space travel because it will let them build settlements where the inhabitants will have to pay them for oxygen.
posted by happyinmotion at 12:36 PM on May 18 [3 favorites]
posted by happyinmotion at 12:36 PM on May 18 [3 favorites]
I think of Biosphere 2 as exploration rather than an experiment.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 12:39 PM on May 18 [1 favorite]
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 12:39 PM on May 18 [1 favorite]
When Steve Bannon was in charge. (I don't think I met him.)
That Steve Bannon ever had anything to do with Biosphere 2 is chilling.
Because once you realize space travel is out, and that you can't survive the apocalypse in a bubble and then emerge to repopulate the world, the only alternative left to those who want to preserve their privileged way of life is to arrange the death of most of the world's population.
And colonial Fascism is the time tested death machine of choice among political systems.
posted by jamjam at 12:41 PM on May 18 [3 favorites]
That Steve Bannon ever had anything to do with Biosphere 2 is chilling.
Because once you realize space travel is out, and that you can't survive the apocalypse in a bubble and then emerge to repopulate the world, the only alternative left to those who want to preserve their privileged way of life is to arrange the death of most of the world's population.
And colonial Fascism is the time tested death machine of choice among political systems.
posted by jamjam at 12:41 PM on May 18 [3 favorites]
Boy, this went dark fast.
posted by Lemkin at 1:03 PM on May 18 [1 favorite]
posted by Lemkin at 1:03 PM on May 18 [1 favorite]
Metafilter:...
posted by Reverend John at 1:17 PM on May 18 [2 favorites]
posted by Reverend John at 1:17 PM on May 18 [2 favorites]
MetaFilter: Boy, this went dark fast.
posted by selenized at 1:17 PM on May 18 [3 favorites]
posted by selenized at 1:17 PM on May 18 [3 favorites]
There's one place that hasn't been corrupted by capitalism.
posted by surlyben at 1:25 PM on May 18 [4 favorites]
posted by surlyben at 1:25 PM on May 18 [4 favorites]
You can go there today and take a very good self-guided tour. I bought a t-shirt at the gift shop. Although I don't remember Steve Bannon's name coming up in the tour, it was pretty candid about the project's failings. Well worth an afternoon if you happen to be near Tucson.
It is remarkable that they had so much money to spend building the thing and yet the science was so amateur. You'd think humanity would have learnt something from that, but it's absolutely the kind of stupid thing Musk or Zuckerberg would do (except theirs would have no pretense of benefit for humanity).
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 2:06 PM on May 18 [5 favorites]
It is remarkable that they had so much money to spend building the thing and yet the science was so amateur. You'd think humanity would have learnt something from that, but it's absolutely the kind of stupid thing Musk or Zuckerberg would do (except theirs would have no pretense of benefit for humanity).
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 2:06 PM on May 18 [5 favorites]
There's an interesting 1993 October 5 New York Times article Too Rich a Soil: Scientists Find the Flaw That Undid the Biosphere [archive link, but I have the full article on file if that doesn't work] exploring what high CO₂ does to concrete.
What's really interesting (to me) about this is that it's about 10 years before any academic paper wrote anything on the effects of eCO2 on concrete (none of which are good - and most are horrifying) and none of the journal papers I've seen have referenced any Biosphere2 findings.
this went dark fast.
this went realistic fast, jamjam's view is likely if we can't push the real and pseudo-religious fanatics off the stage. They want a depopulated future and an Altered Carbon existence (at best) for the rest of us.
posted by unearthed at 2:31 PM on May 18 [4 favorites]
What's really interesting (to me) about this is that it's about 10 years before any academic paper wrote anything on the effects of eCO2 on concrete (none of which are good - and most are horrifying) and none of the journal papers I've seen have referenced any Biosphere2 findings.
this went dark fast.
this went realistic fast, jamjam's view is likely if we can't push the real and pseudo-religious fanatics off the stage. They want a depopulated future and an Altered Carbon existence (at best) for the rest of us.
posted by unearthed at 2:31 PM on May 18 [4 favorites]
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The #1 thing I remember was a hilarious story about banana wine. About the only thing they could go reliably in the first experiment was bananas. Everyone got sick of eating bananas. But also being humans, they wanted some booze. Fermenting bananas was the only option. Apparently it tasted vile but got the job done.
The other thing I remember is all the data collected during the first big experiment was mostly useless. Because no one had calibrated any of the sensors. It was just one example of how the cultlike group that created the original thing were really not equipped to do good science.
They did learn at least one useful thing though: exposed concrete results in oxygen disappearing, a life-threatening amount. Or maybe it was the intensely organic soil. Anyway, terrariums: difficult to stabilize!
posted by Nelson at 10:03 AM on May 18 [17 favorites]