We lived in Phoenix then. This highly-touted, widely-proclaimed experiment was intended to prove that a group of healthy folks could live sustainably outside of the rigors of Earth's confines, providing every possible thing necessary for sustenance. Problems arose, the details of which media carefully hid (what else would be expected?). I expressed extreme doubt at the onset. The optimists poo-pooed me. Here is a concise account: "On Sept. 26, 1991, eight people—the “Biospherians”—were sealed off inside Biosphere 2, a 3.14-acre glass enclosure located in Oracle, Arizona. The event marked the beginning of the first Biosphere 2 mission, a study designed to test survivability and to see whether a small group of humans could develop and live in a self-sustaining colony, as one might imagine on some distant planet in outer space. In terms of its engineering and architecture, Biosphere 2 is remarkable. The science performed there in its early years, however, is another matter. At the start of the first mission, the Biospherians (a group of individuals who were trained to carry out specific tasks during the mission) had high hopes. They were determined to demonstrate that a colony of humans could sustain itself inside a bubble, producing their own food and recycling wastes and water. And the rest of the time they would conduct ecological research. By April 1992, however, each Biospherian had lost a significant amount of body weight, and they discovered that oxygen levels in the indoor atmosphere were decreasing. Also around that time, the group split into two factions, divided in opinion about what they should be doing and giving the mission a psychological twist. Of course, confinement in an isolated environment with limited resources has that effect on people, turning allies into enemies and generosity into selfishness. Food production in Biosphere 2 was low for several reasons. The first winter (1991-92) fell in an El Niño year, resulting in an unusual amount of cloud cover in southern Arizona and presumably contributing to unexpectedly low food production and the low oxygen levels in the biome. In addition, the chickens failed to produce sufficient numbers of eggs, and they and the pigs were consuming valuable food resources, so the Biospherians ended up slaughtering the farm animals. Some of the crew ate the seeds that were meant for sowing crops. There were rumors too that, late in the mission, a few of the Biospherians smuggled food from the outside. Seventeen months into the mission, oxygen levels dipped to just 14.2 percent, and failure seemed imminent. Some of the Biospherians, although suffering from lethargy and breathing difficulties, argued against proposed measures that would allow outside air in and thereby raise oxygen levels. In their minds, doing so would mean failure. But the entire crew’s health was at stake, and external medical review of the situation led to the decision to inject oxygen into Biosphere 2 and to open the air locks daily to draw external air into the facility. The move was heavily criticized, and the mission was deemed a failure by many on the outside and perhaps by a few on the inside. With all the distractions, it seems that very little science was actually conducted during the first Biosphere 2 mission. Of course, lessons were learned—after the mission came to a close, exactly two years from the day it began, various improvements and upgrades were made to the facility. A second mission began on March 6, 1994, but was terminated six months later because of management disputes. The incident severely scarred Biosphere 2′s already weakened scientific reputation.
It was an interesting experiment. Someday the super-haves like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos will probably live in such contraptions while the have-nots peer through the walls of the bubble.
I remember that...I think one of my kids did a report or project on it in HS... Probably my son as he would have been about 15 at the time.