Our older son had recently watched the documentary Spaceship Earth on Netflix. "This documentary explores the ill-fated scientific experiment known as Biosphere 2, a giant terrarium replicating Earth's ecosystem in the early 1990s." He remembered we had been there and asked to see photographic proof. After much searching... voilà!
In the 1800s, the Biosphere 2 property was part of the Samaniego CDO Ranch. After several changes of ownership, it became a conference center in the 1960s and 1970s, first for Motorola, then for The University of Arizona. Space Biospheres Ventures bought the property in 1984 and began construction of the current facility in 1986 to research and develop self-sustaining space-colonization technology.Two missions, between 1991 and 1994, sealed Biospherians inside the glass enclosure to measure survivability. Behind this highly public exercise was useful research that helped further ecological understanding.The back of this 'vintage' postcard reads, "Eight researchers - scientists, engineers, agriculturists - will live inside Biosphere 2 for two years. What they learn inside will help us understand more about life on Earth, and better manage Earth's resources."Truthfully, I don't remember much about what we learned there. I seem to recall that ants getting in the supposedly sealed enclosure could have led to its failure.I do remember being impressed and now, 26 years later, I'm ready to go back and learn even more. Travel is an amazing educator!
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