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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.
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.” 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.”
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. This Earth-based laboratory was built to test the ability of human beings to live in outer space in isolation. It was envisioned as a 100-year project, providing for long-term investigation of processes that fundamentally underline our experience here on Earth.
An overview of the Biosphere campus in Arizona.
| Photo Credit:
Katja Schulz / Wikimedia Commons
Whose idea was it anyway?
A group of people got together in San Francisco in 1967 to build a community known as the “Synergists”. From building a ship of their own to sailing around the world to living in particular environmental conditions, the Synergists carried out a number of projects that they believed were sustainable both economically and ecologically.
During one such project where members were involved in organic farming, carpentry and performing arts on a New Mexico ranch, the group hit upon the idea for Biosphere 2. Believed to be conceived by American engineer and polymath John Allen, the idea turned into a reality once billionaire businessman Edward Bass decided to pump money into the project.
Design and reality
The site for building Biosphere 2 was in the Sonoran Desert in Oracle, Arizona, U.S. Built at a cost of $150 million (over $440 million today), the construction of Biosphere 2 began in 1984 and was completed in the early 1990s. One of the largest buildings to be almost completely cut off from the atmosphere, Biosphere 2 sprawls across a three-acre area.
The structure looks like a cross between a multi-level greenhouse and a collection of glass pyramids, towers, minarets, and domes. Inside it resided over 3,500 species of plants and animals in five miniature biomes. The biomes included a tropical rainforest with a 25-foot waterfall, an ocean with its own living coral reef, a mangrove-filled marsh and wetland, a savannah, and a fogged desert.
Inside Biosphere 2 in 2015, after it came under the management of the University of Arizona.
| Photo Credit:
Harvey Barrison / Wikimedia Commons
On September 26, 1991, eight people — including some who were involved from the ideation stage — stepped into 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. One of them, Jane Poynter, declared that “The future is here!” before stepping into the ecological laboratory that was hermetically sealed.
“The future is here!”Jane Poynter, one of the first eight Biospherians
The eight “Biospherians” had means to communicate with the outside world in the form of email, telephone, and fax, but that’s as far as things got. There was no physical contact from the outside world, and that wasn’t the only challenge that they faced.
Perception and aftermath
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.
Despite the difficulties that they faced, the first batch of Biospherians stepped outside their sealed enclosure two years later in 1993. The next crew of seven stepped into Biosphere 2 on March 6, 1994, but their stay was terminated months later the same year owing to financial and executive decisions made outside in Biosphere 1.
While there’s no denying that the first crew had help from outside and weren’t entirely transparent with their communication, somewhere along the line the experiment turned into something else for those outside. The problem of enforced social-distancing, both mentally and physically, is better understood now owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. 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.
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.
We have only one Earth
If there’s one thing that the Biosphere 2 has helped convey more than anything else, it is the fragility of our living conditions and how it is vitally important for us to take care of our own biosphere.
During the first crew’s stay in Biosphere 2, oxygen levels went so low that supplementary oxygen had to be provided. While they did survive on the food that they cultivated and prepared, they lost plenty of weight. Innumerable animals and plants died, including pollinators that are instrumental in plants reproducing. Though not an exhaustive list, it highlighted a few of the many potential challenges that lie ahead should we colonise elsewhere.
More recently, many have started seeing Biosphere 2 as probably something that came ahead of its time. The place is now teeming with scientists and researchers trying to better understand the effects of climate change on the living ecosystems housed inside Biosphere 2. It might yet yield more results about ecology, the Earth, and our own place in it.
Published – September 26, 2026 07:28 am IST
