Space Colonization Studies Center

***Warning: Long post****
Recommendation for Space Studies Institute to take over management of
BioSphere 2.

Synopsis:
BioSphere 2 is currently at a perfect point for it to be returned to use
as a space science facility. The combination of Space Studies Institute
management and the BioSphere 2 facility would provide a foundation of
needed direction to BioSphere 2 activities and an opportunity to enhance
and expand SSI.

Why this post:
I was visiting my snowbird parents in Quartzsite, AZ for Christmas. On
my way back I decided to stop at BioSphere 2 with my two teenage kids
who couldn't remember our previous visit when the first set of
biospherians were inside. After paying our $20 per head we joined the
last tour of the day, 28Dec2003. The guide had been there since the
beginning of BioSphere 2 and I think he was the same guide that we had
on our first visit. I remember my wife complaining about his accent as
my daughter complained this time. There have been a number of changes
since my last visit. On our first visit the guide said that no tourist
would ever be allowed in BioSphere 2 because it was to be maintained as
a completely closed system. Now there is a tour through the living
facility, Ocean, and Desert sections and into the south lung. The
BioSphere is no longer maintained as an extremely closed environment.
The tour was a disturbing experience. There was paint peeling into the
ocean. Most of the plant, animal, and insect populations had become
monoculture or were well on the way to that end. It was if the entire
project had become a dying memorial to the one interesting activity
conducted there, the two year closed habitation by six people. It was
not only the dissolution of the physical facility, there seemed to be
mental and cultural problems as well. There was no interest or activity
into looking at why major populations of plants, insects, and animals
were disappearing or into how to fix problems that had become obvious.
Anything outside of the very small area used by Columbia University
academics had been ignored.

Some tidbits of information that I got out of our gregarious guide:
-Mr. Bass intends to take some time selecting the next administrators.
-Mr. Bass paid Columbia University $10,000,000 a year for whatever it is
that they did.
-Visitors bring in about $600,000 a year. This didn't quite square with
$20/head and the number of people that he said came each year.
-It takes $3,000,000 a year to keep the lights on. Half of that is
power cost.
-There is also a hefty tax to the state of Arizona. I forgot what the
figure was but it was a significant part of the 'keep the lights on' cost.
-Mr. Bass would like to find somebody with a plan that would make the
facility self-sustaining over a reasonable number of years.
-There is some other stuff going on with the sale of land owned by Mr.
Bass that does not affect the biosphere. The news media is expected to
be confused by it.
-My guide was not a happy person about the way the biosphere had been
managed for the last X years. But I ran out of time to probe further.
-Some attention is being paid to tourists by somebody because there is a
new visitors center being opened in a much more accessible location to
the biosphere than the minimalistic previous one.
-There seemed to be a general consensus that zero science was done
during any of the tenures of any occupants because there was too much
work involved just to survive and no time left over for science.

My overall impression was that of a facility with the potential to be
the cultural center of space colonization preparation being left to rust
with neglect because it had been directed by the wrong types of
organizations.

Why universities are poor administrators:
-The purpose of a university is to educate students. There is very
little that a facility out in the middle of the Sonorian desert can do
to aid in that endeavor. Therefore university administrators must
justify being involved with such a project by the amount of money it
would bring in.
-Which leads to the fact that universities are money sinks. They are
always looking for the next handout. They do not maintain expensive
facilities that are not cost effectively fulfilling the purpose of a
university.
-University administrations are the leading edge of being "Politically
Correct". If it is "Politically Correct" to be studying global warming,
then that is what they will be doing. Even if the tool (BioSphere 2) is
not very useful for that endeavor. Space Colonization does not seem to
be "Politically Correct" as the displays at BioSphere 2 try very hard to
avoid anything to do with space.
-Universities now consider research a profit center. Research is kept
secret. Research not leading to marketable patents is not "Politically
Correct". I would rather see activities at BioSphere 2 be on a totally
open forum, instantly available on the web to be commented on and reviewed.

Comments on a proposed solution:
-The main problem with the facility is that it needs the right mission
statement so that it is possible to see where it should going: what
things should stay, what should be removed, what should be added.
-Proposed mission statement: To facilitate design, manufacture, testing,
and distribution of organic, mechanical, and computer systems necessary
to construct and maintain enclosed habitats.
-Proposed facility rename: Space Colonization Studies Center.
Activities at the center should be considered as part of practical
engineering projects to meet the mission statement. Most activities
will therefore be result oriented. Research will be done to solve
defined engineering problems or questions. As opposed to looking for a
problem to study and then figuring out how to bludgeon the facility into
being useful as a tool in the study of the problem.
-The first priority is to figure out how to maintain the facility for a
lot less money then is required now.
-The second priority is to increase the only current income stream:
tourism. The current experience is not worth $20 a head and sufferers
from badly mixed messages and really needs some expert help to make it
an educational and enjoyable experience.
-The third priority is to start working on solving habitat problems so
that there can be results to distribute. Habitat solutions will be
bought from someplace that can show a working habitat.

What is in this for Mr. Bass:
I think this one is straight forward. Mr. Bass is looking for
administration that can use the facility for the purpose for which it
was made and that has some sort of plan that could get it off of the
dole. I believe that we (the members of SSI) could create a plan that
could work. The SSI brings to the bargain an established track record
of low cost goal oriented research and the administration to make that
happen.

What is in this for the SSI:
-An opportunity to push research in all areas of space colonization
farther and faster.
-Publicity and membership. BioSphere 2 is already orders of magnitude
more well know than the SSI. Successful administration of the center
would greatly increase SSI membership and fame.
-I also think that this combination would present opportunities for SSI
members to participate in ways that we have always grumbled about being
unable to do before.

I have written all of the above and still haven't gotten to what really
excited me about this concept. What the facility really needs is
autonomous and remote controlled robotics to do all those things that
the biospherians were doing that they shouldn't have been doing. Can
you imagine sending highly trained scientist up to a space habitat and
have them spend all day every day working hard to just survive instead
of getting the job done that they were sent up for? This in turn
couples with www.Innertransit.org, my site for collaborative engineering
on the web, and some work that I am doing at my day job with helmet
mounted displays and real-time computer generated visual scenes. There
could be a lot of interesting development that can be done by anybody
with web access and increase the drawing power of the facility for tourists.

The label "BioSphere 2" is just too small and is crippling that
facility. Every piece of equipment used in that facility is something
that will have to be created from lunar or asteroid material for a space
habitat. That facility should be used as a center to design,
manufacture, and test EVERYTHING associated with a habitat. When the
first habitat is created, the center should be a one stop shopping
place. A lot of the research that SSI has already done could be
subsumed into this center. Why not have SSI in charge of it?

Mitchell James
mejames@...
www.InnerTransit.org (center for collaborative engineering on the web)