Chronology of the Biosphere 2 Project

• July, 1984 — Space Biospheres Ventures (SBV) bought SunSpace Ranch and prepared the conceptual design of Biosphere 2.

• December, 1984—SBV held an international conference for staff, scientists, and engineers to review the feasibility of project. The gathering of some sixty participants including many leading scientists and engineers gave a resoundingly favorable response to the potential importance of the project.
  
• 1985—Basic designs and construction for the research and development center and test module ("ecosphere") experiments began. Two workshops developed the concept of the seven biome, three acre facility and brought the teams of ecological and engineering designers together.
  
• 1986 — Ecosystems, sealing, and engineering systems tests began in the Test Module and greenhouses which had been built during the year.
  
• 1987—The First International Workshop on Closed Ecological Systems was held in July at the Royal Society in London bringing together pioneers in the field from Russia, NASA’s and Europe’s biological life support programs. Preliminary Biosphere 2 designs were completed, the building site was selected, and foundation outlines were dug. Plant and animal species collections began.
  
• September 10-12,1988—SBV began the first in a series of Test Module experiments involving humans in the ecosystem. John Allen, Director of Research and Development, became the first human to live in a completely closed ecological system with 100% of the air, water and recycled, and all food grown inside during his three day experiment.
  
  
  
  
  CEO Margret Augustine, Director of Research & Development John Allen, and Test Module Experiment Manager Abigail Alling on September 10, 1988.
  
  
• March 8, 1989—Abigail Alling entered the Test Module for a five-day stay.
  
• September, 1989 - The Second International Workshop on Closed Ecological Systems was held at the Institute of Biophysics. Siberian Academy of Sciences, Krasnoyarsk, USSR. where the most advanced closed system work prior to Biosphere 2, the Bios-3 experiments, were conducted. The 1989 conference recognized Biospherics to be a new science, that of materially closed systems, but energetically and informationally open.
  
• November 27, 1989—Linda Leigh completed a record setting 21-day stay in the Test Module. With this data, the research and development for all the major systems were complete. The Test Module research showed that Biosphere 2 would work, with the ocean being the only biome at some major risk due to longer sustained levels of higher carbon dioxide.
  
• September 26, 1991—Eight crew members entered Biosphere 2 shortly after sunrise for the initial two-year mission of the proposed 100 year project. Millions of television viewers watched worldwide. Nine preliminary one week semi-closed experiments from May 1 to September l had prepared the crew along with their years of training and work on developing systems for Biosphere 2.
  
  To kick off the first mission, Biosphere 2 hosted an international environmental symposium titled "Biospheric Challenges: Impacts on the Global Environment." The event, chaired by United Earth founder Claes Nobel, attracted over 100 organizational leaders, scientists, and educators representing such groups as World Wildlife Fund, Earth Island Institute, Royal Botanical Gardens, and NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center.
  
• October 11, 1991—Crew member Jane Poynter left Biosphere 2 through the airlock to have finger surgery after an accident with a rice threshing machine. Mission Rules had called for temporary removal of crew members for treatment of illness or accident if superior treatment was available than can be provided by the resident doctor and medical facilities. She returned to Biosphere 2 five hours later and made a satisfactory recovery. She is the only crew member to have had to leave even for a brief time.
  
• December 1991—Leak tests on the Biosphere 2 structure from September 26 through the first week of December were completed. Results of the seal tests showed an annual leak-rate of under 10%, making Biosphere 2 hundreds of times more tightly sealed than previous closed ecological experimental facilities. The sealed facade of a well-designed glazed skyscraper would normally leak air several thousand times more rapidly than a comparable area of Biosphere 2’s glazing.
  
• December 9, 1991—600,000 cubic feet of ambient air was injected into Biosphere 2 to replace the atmosphere lost during leak testing because a positive out-pressure had been maintained during that period. Since the leakrate is so small, it took over two months to accumulate a sufficient amount of loss for exact measurement. Ordinarily, the air pressure alternates between a small positive and small negative pressure and thus the volume is maintained.
  
• Fall 1991 - Winter 1992—An exceptionally forceful El Nino current cast Arizona into one of its cloudiest seasons on record. Inside Biosphere 2 carbon dioxide levels rose to about 3400 ppm coinciding with an unusually dark cloudy period in the last week of December when photosynthesis was greatly reduced. A factor in restricting the rise of carbon dioxide level during this period to less than 4000 ppm was the operation of a recycler to capture carbon dioxide and precipitate it into calcium carbonate (limestone). The calcium carbonate can later be released into the air by heating the mineral. Experience was also gained by crew and Mission Control staff in how to work with the life systems in Biosphere 2 to maximize photosynthesis and minimize soil respiration which greatly aided Biosphere 2’s ability to maintain its atmosphere despite the low light conditions.
  
• February 9 and 10, 1992—An independent Scientific Advisory Committee first formed March 1991 and strengthened by the addition of two members met to review the research underway at Biosphere 2.
  
• February 20, 1992—The Biosphere 2 crew announced the birth of a new baby galago in the rainforest. The baby galago, believed to be about three weeks old, marked the first primate birth in Biosphere 2. The gestation period of the galagos ( 130 days) suggests that the newborn was conceived in Biosphere 2.
  
• March, 1992—Dr. Phil Dustin, College of Charleston, a well known authority on the health and vitality of coral reefs, commenced a study in Mexico, where the coral collections were made, and with Biosphere 2 corals to ascertain the specific differences between the two reef ecologies.
  
• March 22, l992—The crew of Biosphere 2 spoke to the crew at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station via a ham radio phone-patch. The phone-patch was a unique linkage between crews isolated in different ways—one in a separate tropical biosphere—the other in a polar extreme environment. Both teams enjoyed the experience of being "alone together."
  
• March 27, 1992—Six months into its two-year closure, the Biosphere 2 crew surpassed its first major milestone—living inside a closed ecological life support system longer than any predecessor. One member of the Russian crew of the BIOS-3 facility in Siberia lived six months inside, however BIOS-3 did not recycle waste, and supplied less than 50% of the food.
  
• April 24-27, 1992—Space Biospheres Ventures hosted the Third International Workshop on Closed Ecological Systems. Presentations and workshops were given by more than 30 different participants representing universities, research institutions, and government agencies from Russia, Europe, Japan and the United States. The symposium explored the dynamics and modeling of carbon dynamics in natural and engineered ecosystems underlining the potential importance of carbon research in Biosphere 2 in our understanding of issues involved in global warming.
  
• May 21, 1992—Biosphere 2 received the top Special Award in the Pacific Rim 1992 Gold Nugget Awards contest for the best architectural design in the Commercial/Industrial Public or Private Special Use Facility category. Regarding the Biosphere 2 project the judges said: "This project is a leading edge experiment which may give direction on how to cope with future environmental issues that will have an increasing impact on the home-building industry in the coming decades."
  
• May 29, 1992—A major discovery became clear in Biosphere 2 due to an unexpected continued decline of about 0.3% of oxygen/month, it was announced. The unexpected event presented the opportunity for new research into the linkage of major biogeochemical cycles within Biosphere 2 by both SBV and W.S. Broecker of Lamont-Doherty's Earth Observatory.
  
  
• July 8, 1992—Blood samples from each crew member were exported from Biosphere 2 for the first time. One of the aims of the blood research is to examine the relationship between levels of contaminant compounds in the environment and levels of those compounds in the blood of the crew. The research is a collaborative effort between ACCU-CHEM laboratories in Richardson, Texas and SBV. Starting levels were established prior to closure. Blood from each crew member was analyzed separately for 53 different contaminant compounds and metabolic by-products by ACCU-CHEM.
  
• July 21, 1992—The Biosphere 2 Scientific Advisory Committee issued its "Report to the Chairman of Space Biospheres Ventures." Committee chairman, Dr. Thomas Lovejoy reported, "The committee is in agreement that the conception and construction of Biosphere 2 were acts of vision and courage. The scale of Biosphere 2 is unique and Biosphere 2 is already providing unexpected scientific results not possible through other means (notably the documented, unexpected decline in atmospheric oxygen levels.) Biosphere 2 will make important scientific contributions in the fields of biogeochemical cycling, the ecology of closed ecological systems, and restoration ecology."
  
• July 28, 1992 — Routine import/exports commenced following the recommendation from the Scientific Advisory Committee that the amount of items taken out for measurements could be increased. The Biosphere 2 airlock doors insure this is done with a measurable and minimal air exchange. This policy change enables a greatly enhanced research program to be pursued as outside labs receive samples and equipment for new studies are imported into Biosphere 2.
  
• September 26, 1992—The crew of Biosphere 2 celebrated their first year inside while over 6000 well-wishers celebrated with them outside. Educational activities for children were the focus of the event. Over 30 environmental organizations set-up educational booths and added to the festive moods.
  
  The health of the crew continued to be excellent. Their health indices, including blood cholesterol, blood pressure, and other measurements were better than before entry into Biosphere 2, due in large part to their low-calorie, low-fat, nutrient-dense diet, according to the crew’s physician, Dr. Roy Walford.
  
  "Nutrient-dense" means a large amount of essential nutrients—vitamins, minerals, etc.—per each calorie of food intake as opposed to, for example, table sugar which has lots of calories and no essential nutrients. The crew members lost an average of 16% of their pre-entry body weight before stabilizing.
  
• October 17, 1992—Three new agriculture consultants attended a work session at SBV to evaluate and offer improvements in Biosphere 2’s agriculture. They were: Dr. Jim Litsinger; Dr. Richard Harwood, Mott Chair of Sustainable Agriculture, Crop & Soil Sciences Dept., Michigan State University; and Dr. Will Getz, Winrock International.
  
• October 30, 1992—The four registered voters (out of five Americans) of the Biosphere 2 crew cast ballots for the presidential election, including national, state, and local issues through absentee ballot.
  
• December 1, 1992—The National Academy of Sciences published in its proceedings a paper by Dr. Roy Walford. The scientific paper discusses Biosphere 2 and implications for reducing physiological risk factors through dietary manipulation.
  
• December 15, 1992 — A new research program commenced in Biosphere 2 representing collaboration between Dr. Roy L. Walford and Dr. Gary K. Beauchamp and Dr. Charles J. Wysocki of Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, the world’s leading multidisciplinary center for research on olfactory sense perception. Biosphere 2 affords a unique opportunity to study, for the first time, possible changes in human olfaction in a long-term closed system. Two aromas were imported for the odor-threshold testing.
  
• Winter 1992—The journal, Restoration & Management Notes, published paper by team from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies who collaborated with Biosphere 2 researchers to study the carbon distribution and dynamics within the system and the development of soil over time. The article discusses the importance of Biosphere 2 in generating basic ecosystem understanding relevant to our ability to restore human damaged environments.
  
• January 13, 1993—Oxygen was added to Biosphere 2 to bring its atmosphere level back to 19%. The oxygen dropped below 14.5%, about equal to the oxygen in air found at an altitude of around 13,400 feet. Studies of the crew’s ability to acclimate to falling levels of oxygen indicate the crew operates well between the range of 16%- 19%.
  
  Dr. Wally Broecker of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the primary outside scientist working on the oxygen dynamics of Biosphere 2, said. "As long as the exact amount of oxygen added and its isotopic composition are precisely measured, it seems to me that this action will not put into jeopardy any of the scientific goal of this endeavor." Studies of the causes of the oxygen loss continue.
  
• February 1, 1993—A combination of unprecedented cloudy weather for the second straight year, 20% below the low rate of sunshine of 1992, and increased insect pest problems, due largely to the increased cloudiness, presented the Biosphere 2 crew with a new set of food production challenges.

The development of a sustainable, highly productive, and non-polluting agriculture system is one of the most interesting areas of work inside Biosphere 2. The chemical-free system recycles all human and domestic animal waste products and utilizes dozens of crop varieties to provide nutritional balance and allow for crop rotation. To date the crew has produced approximately 80% of their food. The other 20% has been drawn from a three month supply of food that was grown before the experiment began and from seed reserve.

• February 15, 1993—The Scientific Advisory Committee of Biosphere 2 was dissolved with the completion of their recommendations: increased measurements, expansion of the Research and Development staff, notably the appointment of Research Director, and increase of staff and facilities for laboratory analysis and information data processing. The necessary budgets were approved by SBV’s Board of Directors and the increases made. The majority of the committee members continue in an advisory role to the project in their individual areas of expertise.
  
• March 1, 1993 — After an extensive, professional search process and consultation of highly qualified outside scientists, NASA consultant and discoverer of the unique submarine thermal vents ecosystem near the Galapagos Island, Dr. John B. Corliss was appointed Director of Research for the Biosphere 2 project. Upon accepting the new position, Dr. Corliss said "Biosphere 2 is one of the most dynamic and exciting tools for scientific exploration in the world today. We shall research and refine each aspect of the project until it is positioned at the cutting edge of science. To coordinate research in this facility is the opportunity of a lifetime."   
  
  
• April 1, 1993 — The journal of the American Institutes of Biological Sciences, Bioscience, published a paper on initial results from the Biosphere 2 closure experiment and the project’s potential for providing a new type of laboratory for understanding fundamental processes of ecosystems and Earth’s biosphere.
  
  
• August 25, 1993—Oxygen was again added to Biosphere 2 to bring its atmosphere level close to 21%. After being brought up to 19% in January of 1993 with the injection of oxygen, the levels declined to 17%. Since numerous technicians and scientists will enter the structure during the transition period between missions, oxygen concentrations will need to be nearly equivalent to those outside in order for individuals entering Biosphere 2 to avoid experiencing a sudden drop in available oxygen. The modifications took place with a series of injections over the course of three weeks.