The dream of heading out to space and colonising distant celestial bodies isn’t one that is unique to the time we live in. It is one that humans have aspired for long and continue to strive towards, despite the problems plaguing the only known planet that supports life as we know it: Earth.
Even as we probe the habitability of celestial bodies, near and far, there have also been another set of experimenters, scientists, and researchers here on Earth that have concentrated on gearing up for that mission, whenever that might be. One of the more popular such experiments came in the form of Biosphere 2.
The four women and four men were dressed in dark-blue spacesuits as they bade goodbyes to the gathered friends, family and members of media crews. If we were to ever construct colonies in outer space, then there’s the need for those building it and living there to be self-sufficient. As the Biospherians were exploring exactly that, they grew their own crops and ate them; recycled all the air, water, and waste; and took care of their surroundings. somewhere along the line the experiment turned into something else for those outside While there’s no denying that the first crew had help from outside and weren’t entirely transparent with their communication. Three decades before that, however, people outside understood little of how things might be. Both the broader public, and a section of the media covering it, became more interested in the storylines and fault lines of the individuals involved, more than what they were trying to achieve.
On September 26, 1991, eight people — including some who were involved from the ideation stage — stepped into Biosphere 2. The problem of enforced social-distancing, both mentally and physically, is better understood now owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The property was leased out to Columbia University in 1994, and they converted it into a research facility. It was subsequently leased and eventually gifted to the University of Arizona in 2011.
One of them, Jane Poynter, declared that “The future is here!” before stepping into the ecological laboratory that was hermetically sealed.
Given that Earth is the only place we know that supports life, the biosphere can also be defined as “the part of the Earth’s environment where life exists. This Earth-based laboratory was built to test the ability of human beings to live in outer space in isolation. With Earth being Biosphere 1, a group of people got together to build Biosphere 2 — a structure that was to serve as a tiny Earth capsule on Earth. It was envisioned as a 100-year project, providing for long-term investigation of processes that fundamentally underline our experience here on Earth.
If you were to look up the word “biosphere” in a dictionary, then you will likely learn that it is “a part of a planet’s environment where life exists.
