Biosphere 2

Today is our last day in the Tucson / Oro Valley area. Heading out to the car today, watched a Havelina stroll across the parking lot! Les and MaryAnn decided not to go with us to the Biosphere as Les's hip was bothering him. Rosanne and I spent about 90 minutes walking to tour around the Biosphere, ate a sack lunch we packed, and then went back for a guided tour of the Biosphere's history and the Library. Very interesting to see and hear about life in the Biosphere. There was a team of 8 "Biospherians" that stayed for two years and 20 minutes. The 20 minutes was due to the last speaker at the celebration going over time. The Biospherians probably didn't mind since that speaker was Jane Goodell. Biosphere 2 was primarily bankrolled by Texas billionaire and philanthropist Edward "Ed" Bass, who provided around $150 to $200 million through his company, Space Biospheres Ventures, to build and maintain the ambitious ecological project in the 1980s and 90s. Bass, heir to a family oil fortune, funded the initial construction and significant operational costs, seeing it as a platform for space colonization research. The Philecology Foundation; Bass's foundation continued to provide substantial grants even after the main missions, including a $30 million endowment to the University of Arizona, which now operates the facility.
During our first self guided tour, we saw much of the Biosphere, including the kitchen, living quarters, rain forest, "ocean", some of the outer buildings used for the generators and cooling. They had two generators, one diesel and one natural gas, allowing for redundancy if one fuel source was not available. The Biospherians were chosen from a group that had already communed together and had the experience of living together. Six of the eight are still living and continue to visit the Biosphere occasionally. The guided tour was led by a staff member paid by the University of Arizona. She shared much of the history and information I mentioned above. We got to see the inside of the living quarters, that we could only see through a window on our self guided tour. The Library involved a 63 step climb up to the highest tower on the Biosphere. There was so much information to hear and absorb, and I have only touched a tip of it here. As we were leaving, at the front desk there was a guy with a Harris's Hawk that he was training to hunt. The guy was one of only a select few that obtained a special permit to have the Raptor. I think he was just there visiting one of the staff members whose family also has a Raptor.Read more