I drove down to the North-East of Tucson, AZ last weekend to go and see Biosphere2. It is a large open structure that was originally envisioned to do science experiments which mimiced humans being on another planet and self-reliant ecologically within a small, confined area.
While Biosphere 2 was established as a privately funded operation that would pay for itself through patents and other research, one of the secondary goals was to discover if a closed biosphere was possible scientifically.
As a human experiment in a restricted public space the second mission was a complete failure. The mission management were removed by Federal Marshals using a restraining order while the scientists in the sphere vandalised the experiment by breaking the closed seals. The tour guide mentioned that the social infrastructure failed so badly that the members of the experiment would literally spit at each other.
Photos: Images of Biosphere 2 from my flickr photostream.
