Life Under Glass. Марк Нельсон

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      Biosphere 2, 1991.

FOREWORD TO SECOND EDITION by Sylvia A. Earle

      “YES!” WAS MY IMMEDIATE RESPONSE to the invitation to be present and speak at the opening of Biosphere 2 after eight intrepid explorers had lived and worked within the confines of their glass-enclosed microcosm for two full years, September 26, 1991-September 26, 1993. Like many others, I had followed with fascinated interest what seemed to be an Arthur C. Clarke-like futuristic fantasy, but in fact involved real people living an otherworldly experience in real time. As a witness, as a scientist, and as one who had been part of a space simulation project more than twenty years earlier, I was intrigued and sometimes incredulous as the audacity of the Biosphere 2 vision became a successful reality. The Biosphere 2 team quickly demonstrated that one doesn’t have to travel far to discover extraordinary new horizons.

      Like Abigail (Gaie) Alling, co-author of this book, I am a marine biologist who literally becomes immersed in my research. I could not resist the opportunity in 1970 to live underwater for two weeks, leading a team of five women scientists and engineers during the NASA-US Navy-Smithsonian Institution-US Department of the Interior-sponsored Tektite II Project. Like the biospherians, those of us who lived as aquanauts isolated from direct contact with people on the outside were subjected to intense scrutiny by physicians, psychologists, and the public who were hoping to learn from the behavior of the ten teams who participated in the project, insights applicable to living in space and potentially, on the moon or other planets.

      And, like the biospherians, we were keenly aware of the limits of our life support systems, from food and freshwater supply, to temperature, pressure, and especially the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air. But unlike them, we did not face the challenge of spending two years essentially self-contained, relying on living systems that had to be assiduously cared for to produce food and oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide, recycle wastes and otherwise provide for aesthetic and psychologically pleasing surroundings.