Space Colonization Studies Center

--- In ssi_list@... "Paul D. Fernhout"
> > Yep, even get Paul all fired up on keeping it
sustainable and off
> > the grid as much as possible.
>
> While I think that Biosphere II is probably one of the neatest
technical
> and exploratory projects ever done, I have a couple issues with it
from
> an SSI standpoint:

I have some questions about any future Biosphere2-type experiment:

Did the Biosphere 2 project really need to be as complex as it was?
There were many different ecosystems represented, almost a Noah's
Ark worth of species. The first spacesettlers will likely not have
that kind of variety, probably no more than 2 dozen species of
plants, and probably no more than a dozen species of animal life.
They will likely not require a wide range of temperatures,
humidities etc.

Did it really replicate the conditions that space settlers will find
in their biospheres? Any residents of a lunar base will not be
living in glass domes exposed to raw sunlight, and neither will
their plant life. It would more likely be under 2 meters of rock,
with plants grown under fluorescent lights hydroponically. The
energy for powering the fluorescents would most likely be drawn from
solar panels. The walls, floors and ceiling would either be natural
rock or some kind of syncrete, but that would be lined with
plastic.

Rather than building a special-purpose structure in the middle of
the desert, could the experiment be performed in another way using
an existing structure close to a major city? Does it make sense to
build a huge glass and steel structure in the middle of nowhere? or
to seal off a windowless Quonset hut, perhaps by inflating a plastic
liner on the inside, building a CELSS inside, then monitoring the
energy usage, getting power right off the grid?

Could the experiment be repeated on a smaller scale? is a 4 month
experiment with 3 people a valid test of the idea? Can it be done
with a handful of species?

Ed