In the early 1990s, several Americans voluntarily isolated themselves in a town specially built for the Biosphere-2 experiment with five landscape systems: an ocean with a coral reef, savannah, jungle, desert, and swamp. A sealed dome sheltered this splendor from the terrible world and it seemed that life there would be a real paradise.
However, something went wrong …
Texas entrepreneur and billionaire Edward Bass allocated $ 30 million for the Biosphere-2 project, during which it was supposed to establish whether a person could survive in a closed system, being completely cut off from the real world.
In the state of Arizona, they chose a deserted place at a distance of about 50 km from the nearest settlement and built a real Eden: five types of landscape were hidden under the domed roof.
The closed system also included an agricultural unit equipped with the latest technology, a nice comfortable home for living. In addition to people, this "paradise" was inhabited by four thousand different fauna from insects to farm animals: goats, backs and chickens. Of course, it was assumed that some of them would not survive until the end of the experiment, which was given two years.
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We prepared thoroughly for the project. The construction of the modules began in 1987. The task of the designers was complicated by the fact that it was planned to make the system absolutely hermetic.
For this, window seals and other structures had to be as airtight as possible in order to reduce air leaks (about 180 tons were concentrated in the "town") to a minimum. Otherwise, the Biosphere team would not have been able to record changes in the oxygen density under the dome.
Since the air, warming up from the sun, expanded during the day, and contracted at night, engineers had to come up with huge domed diaphragms, which were called "lungs", in order to level the pressure drops.
The technical structures were underground. Pipes were laid there, through which water was circulated for heating and drinking.
In order to prevent any penetration from the outside, all the buildings of the "town" were also isolated from the surface of the earth with the help of welded metal sheets, the total weight of which was about 500 tons.
As for the biotopes, they were different in area. Thus, the "ocean" occupied only 450 m2, since, in fact, it was relatively useless - but the gardens and fields were allocated 2500 square meters.
A pond was also dug under the dome, into which fish were launched.
It was assumed that the colonists would eat what grew under the dome, breathe the air given off by plants, drink purified water obtained as a result of the cycle.
Thus, it was planned to create a kind of planet in miniature - practically heaven on earth. But it turned out that not everything is so simple …
Eight volunteers first crossed the threshold of this "paradise" on September 26, 1991. Many newspapers and magazines then reprinted their photographs in identical suits.
At first it was exactly as planned. The colonists enthusiastically worked in the fields, tinkered with the cattle, checked and recorded the work of all systems, and in the evenings they ate dinner with the freshest products on the balcony overlooking the ripening harvest.
After dinner, philosophical discussions or jam sessions were held, in which the colonists played musical instruments, taken with them under the dome.
After a while, troubles began. First, the chief technician of Biosphere-2, Van Tillo, announced at breakfast that daily measurements of the air condition showed a mistake by the designers - the oxygen level is constantly falling, and the percentage of carbon dioxide in the air is increasing.
While this is completely imperceptible, but if the tendency continues, it will be impossible to exist at the station in a year.
Due to the imbalance of air components under the dome, microorganisms began to multiply uncontrollably, which over time began to destroy crops and create breathing problems.
To restore the oxygen balance, it was decided to build up green biomass as intensively as possible. The colonists devoted almost all their time to planting and caring for plants. In addition, they launched a backup carbon dioxide absorber at full capacity, however, all these measures were of little help - the air became increasingly thinner.
Not without an accident. One of the colonists, Jane Poynter, cut off her fingertip while working with a rice peeling machine - the victim had to be taken out of the Ark and sent to the medical center for treatment, after which she returned to the Biosphere.
The bionauts were soon faced with another significant problem. Despite the seemingly ideal microclimate, the farm of 20 acres of land was unable to provide 100% of food for all biospherians.
Their daily diet - by the way, the same for both men and women - was only 1,700 kilocalories. It would have been enough for office life, but for the level of physical work that the eight prisoners of “paradise” had to do, it was too little.
Conflicts began among the colonists. At first, dinner was served as a buffet, then, seeing the lack of food, each meal was allocated in portions, weighing and measuring literally every piece.
The colonists left the table hungry, and all the philosophical disputes that were common in the commune in the evening were replaced by conversations about food. People constantly said what they would eat now and what they will eat when they go out into the big world.
The team was divided into two parts. Some of the colonists openly admitted that they could not stand someone from the group and tried not to intersect with an unpleasant person either in the dining room or in the field.
This is how one of the participants looked immediately after the end of the experiment (-27 kg) - on the left and some time after having eaten a little (on the right).
Despite the improved blood counts due to hunger, people felt worse and worse.
The summer of 1992 became especially difficult for the colonists. Rice crops were almost completely destroyed by pests, and the diet of Biospherians for several months consisted almost entirely of beans, sweet potatoes and carrots. There was an excess of beta-carotene in the food, so the colonists' skin turned orange. They could afford animal products (meat, milk, cheese) no more than once a week. Participants recall that after such a meal, they often licked their plates.
However, communicating through the glass with tourists, the inhabitants of the domed town invariably smiled, giving rise to the illusion of a lucky ticket that fell to this eight.
Meanwhile, problems with low oxygen levels and carbon dioxide build-up became more and more serious. The first of the biomes felt bad about the desert - under the dome above it, moisture constantly accumulated, which was poured down by rain. Plants that were not adapted to this climate were withering away.
Life was no better for corals. The water absorbed too much carbon dioxide. The sensors constantly showed a decrease in oxygen levels. In 16 months, it dropped to 14%.
But the tropical greenery raged. In the soil of the jungle, microorganisms multiplied in unprecedented quantities, which also consumed precious oxygen.
People began to feel bad. Some team members complained that they began to forget words and were unable to perform simple arithmetic operations, and in conversation they had to stop to catch their breath in the middle of the phrase.
- You wake up gasping for air because the composition of your blood has changed. And then you literally do this: you stop breathing, then you breathe in, and it wakes you up. It's terribly annoying, they recalled.
After a while, scientists decided to pump air from the outside - of course, the media did not report this. The station worked like a clock for journalists. In September 1993, the doors of "Biosphere-2" were opened and the exhausted colonists left their "paradise".
The first impression that Jane Poynter got upon returning to the "big world" was this: "I would say that we all came out a little nuts. I was thrilled to see all my family and friends. For two years, I have seen people through glass. And so everyone ran to me. And I pulled back. They stank! People stink! We stink of hairspray and deodorant and stuff like that."
In 1994, the second mission of the "bionauts" was launched, in a different, of course, composition. People prepared to spend not two years in a closed town, but at least 10 months, but, alas, this experiment failed as soon as it began. First, two dismissed members of the former team burst into the dome in protest, opened several emergency exits, breaking the tightness for 15 minutes, and also shattered several windows. Against this background, several people from the new team decided not to continue the experiment, and then the sponsors refused to sponsor it at all and closed the funding.
So, despite the millions of dollars invested in the project, people could not achieve a normal life in self-isolation without an influx of oxygen from the outside. Nature turned out to be stronger. Constant crop failures and proliferating pests put the team on the brink of survival, and conflicts made coexistence almost impossible. Even many years after the end of the project, the biospherians do not communicate with each other.
"Biosphere-2" still stands in the Arizona desert. It is now just a domed botanical garden owned by the state university. Experiments are still being carried out there, but, of course, not so large-scale.
One of the sights, which must be shown to excursionists, is the inscription left by the former “bionaut”: “Only here we felt how dependent on the surrounding nature. If there are no trees, we will have nothing to breathe, if the water is polluted, we will have nothing to drink."