Jane and Gaie put on loose-fitting work clothes for the messy, sweaty job of cleaning two rows of algae scrubbers. Gaie cleaned the Plexiglas containers and wave-buckets, while Jane scraped the old algae off the screens. The harvesting of the algae off the screens was labor-intensive, so the biospherians would alternate the job, each doing one to two hours every two weeks. Before they completed the job, Jane and Gaie placed the scraped-off algae in racks in the room’s drying ovens.
Now R2D2 had to be moved to its new location in the lower savannah. First Linda disconnected the long cable which carried its measurements to one of the large computer stations in the basement. Then Mark and Taber coiled the cable and extension cord and gently moved the ‘portable’ but awkward sixty-pound apparatus over the surprisingly rugged and varied Biosphere 2 terrain. They re-ran the cable and extension cords to the nearest side air vent that drops down to the basement and Linda later rewired the cable to the closest computer cabinet and electrical outlet. There were computers along with thousands of sensors all over the Biosphere: parts of the “Nerve System” that collected data so it would be available to us and Mission Control.
In each biome, a circular plastic ring had been fixed in the ground for R2D2 to sit on. A greased gasket ensured an airtight fit. The instrument had two sensors to measure both the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the carbon dioxide diffusing out from the soil. Before R2D2 was constructed by Mission Control staff at the end of our first year, Linda and Taber used to take the measurements manually, taking a syringe of air every six hours over twenty-four-hour periods and then running the air samples on a gas chromatograph in the Biosphere 2 laboratory. We’d occasionally use the manual method to check the accuracy of R2D2 and to take samples in other biomes if R2D2 was occupied elsewhere.
The weekly Mission Control meeting via video started at 3:00 PM. Sally and Laser joined Norberto Alvarez-Romo, head of Mission Control, Bill Dempster, in charge of engineering systems, and Bernd Zabel, operations manager for the Biospheric Research and Development Center (BRDC) to coordinate activities between the two worlds and review technical systems. Sally and Laser sat at the V-shaped table in the command room which was outfitted with both the video link and a document reader. They talked over the operational and research activities for the week and a few problems that needed Mission Control’s attention. Mission Control noted that vegetation was pressing against the space frame glass at several points and needed pruning, and that the glass also needed cleaning at several places. They made sure that we knew about all upcoming visits by collaborating scientists, guest lecturers, or VIPs in the environmental world.
During the afternoon, we usually worked on our weekly and monthly reports or contacted people with whom we had been doing research projects. Sally finished her weekly report on food production, diet, and nutrition; Jane reported on animal fodder production; and Laser detailed the maintenance program. There were also reviews and projections for the terrestrial wilderness systems (Linda), the marine wilderness systems (Gaie), and the medical and health systems (Roy).
By 3:30, the Biosphere would be bustling. Laser was working on technical design problems and the future upgrades during the transition (the period after the completion of the two-year closure when system improvements, detailed research with outside scientists, and helping and training the second crew would occur) with Ernst Thal-Larsen and Larry Pomatto, Director of Technical Systems, via video. Sally was on the phone with Jim Litsinger, the project’s integrated pest management consultant, and Dr. Michael Stanghellini, a pathologist at the University of Arizona who had recently examined roots of our rice, wheat, and sorghum crops to see if nematodes or water-borne bacteria were responsible for the poor yields. They discussed a test which had been proposed by consultants at the University of Michigan to see if our rice seedlings were suffering from a more subtle nutrient deficiency.
Mark was on the phone, too, discussing an upcoming meeting, The Case for Mars Conference, with its organizers in Boulder, Colorado. Using PictureTel technology, we were able to present a ‘paper’ detailing our findings and also participate in a direct discussion with the conference members. After he hung up, he made data entries from the leaf litter and decomposition studies underway in all the biomes.
Within the hour, Gaie was scheduling the first three months of the anticipated transition phase (the period between Mission One and Mission Two from September 26, 1993 to February 26, 1994) that would provide the opportunity for research, review and repairs inside the laboratory. During that period of time, Biosphere 2 would continue to operate with closure protocol. Work teams were prioritized and planned according to the breath of an eight-person crew living inside. Thus, this task needed to include all sixty research programs underway, as well as technical system repairs or upgrades, and training the second crew that would operate the laboratory for the coming year. In order to set the research plan, she contacted a number of the consultants and collaborating scientists by phone and email to arrange a meeting within the Biosphere to make measurements and observations for the completion of research projects.
Taber spent the afternoon doing routine maintenance on the automatic sniffer system that analyzed levels of eight critical gases in the atmosphere.
It may sound as if everyone was so involved in activity that there was little room for emotional interaction. But there was—even if conducting our private relationships proved a bit tricky. We agreed not to invade in one another’s personal lives by addressing who was or wasn’t involved in love affairs, suffice it to say that there were some people in Biosphere 2 with such relationships, and others without them. For those without, how was it possible to continue a relationship with someone on the outside? With ingenuity. Private meetings at the windows were arranged. While the official biospherian handshake was two hands matching each other (even though separated by the thin three-eighths-inch glass), pairs of lip-prints had been spotted on each side of the meeting window as well. Sometimes they took a while to fade, lingering like the blush of flowers preserved in a diary.
At 4:30, Linda and Mark met in the west arroyo area of the desert to measure plants. This was part of a biomass resurvey they completed at the end of each rainy season, to measure how the communities of plants were changing as the desert developed. At the same moment, Sally was discussing the results of recent trials of recipes from her Biosphere 2 cookbook, Eating In, with one of the ‘food testers.’ Gaie had just completed her daily review of the Biosphere 2 management with John Allen, Director of Research and Development, and was now on the phone with Dr. Jack Corliss, Director of Research for SBV, about the overall research program which included wide areas of investigations in global modeling, biogeochemical cycles, biomes and ecosystems, systematics, human physiology and nutrition, and engineering.
Meanwhile, a last burst of animal husbandry was taking place: by 5:30, Jane was milking goats, Taber came down from the kitchen to put the buck and kids into their separate pens to feed them, and Sally was taking care of the chickens. After completing the biomass measurements in the desert, Linda connected the cables for R2D2 and once more checked in with Mission Control regarding CO2 emissions. Mark went to take more soil moisture samples.
By now the official workday was over, but, as usual, a few matters needed attention. Laser was trouble-shooting the electronic sensing devices of the fire alarm system which had been giving false alarms due to high humidity. Gaie and Mark reviewed a press release written by the public affairs office. Sally returned a call from a Tucson journalist requesting her reaction to the National Academy of Sciences warning of the danger of pesticide levels in fruits and vegetables, especially to children. She used the opportunity to discuss the relevance of our agricultural system, which didn’t rely on chemical pesticides or harmful chemicals of any kind and was nevertheless extremely