3:30 PM - 3:45 PM
[AOS14-06] What we are learning from Biosphere 2 about Biosphere and beyond
★Invited Papers
If you wish to study the underlying causes of a specific disease, you start by examining an animal model that would simulate the human condition. If you want to study a subset of geological events on earth, Biosphere 1 (B1), 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, sea water, and plants to build a model of Biosphere 1 consisting of five biomes and 8 humans who would live for two years. While this unprecedented, experiment’s outcome were 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 own earth, but also to possibilities of imitating B1 extra terrestrially. Today, B2 is the largest earth science living laboratory in which 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".
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 establishing a human presence on Mars. Once we are living on the Moon, Mars, or a distant moon of Jupiter we will no longer be able to conduct immediate rescue. Therefore, sustainable, mostly self-contained ecosystems must be realized to a certain degree of perfection, with mechanical life support systems as backup only. Today at Bioshpere 2 we have built upon the 1987 Test Module, the prototype for the Biosphere 2 to creat SAM a hi-fidelity Mars habitat analog. Research teams visiting SAM can perform missions for as brief as 5 days, or as long as several weeks. They choose their level of fidelity, from a quantified pass-through air flow to a full 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, 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 lecture, to be 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 lecture, Adams will discuss some of these project, and how they impact our understanding of our own biosphere-Earth.
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 establishing a human presence on Mars. Once we are living on the Moon, Mars, or a distant moon of Jupiter we will no longer be able to conduct immediate rescue. Therefore, sustainable, mostly self-contained ecosystems must be realized to a certain degree of perfection, with mechanical life support systems as backup only. Today at Bioshpere 2 we have built upon the 1987 Test Module, the prototype for the Biosphere 2 to creat SAM a hi-fidelity Mars habitat analog. Research teams visiting SAM can perform missions for as brief as 5 days, or as long as several weeks. They choose their level of fidelity, from a quantified pass-through air flow to a full 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, 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 lecture, to be 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 lecture, Adams will discuss some of these project, and how they impact our understanding of our own biosphere-Earth.