TUCSON, Ariz. — As part of our summer series, One Tank Trips, the crew of Good Morning Tucson is taking you to places on much less than a tank of gas.
April Madison headed north of Tucson to Biosphere 2 to check it out. Walking through the doors, it was hard to fully imagine what we were about to see.
"Recently Time Life Magazine mentioned Biosphere 2 as one of the 50 must see wonders in the world," said Deputy Director John Adams.
Adams played our tour guide for the day, and thanks to what he showed us, it was easy to see why Biosphere 2 got the recognition.
"This stop is the first one, but arguably one of the most spectacular," he said, showing the panoramic views of the Biosphere 2 landscape to the Santa Catalina Mountains. That was the first of 23 stops in the only facility in the world of this size and this complex, where eight people actually lived for two years.
"If you like reality TV, think of Biosphere 2 as a blend, before any of these other shows got started, it's a blend of Big Brother and Survivor," Adams said.
For two years and 20 minutes, those eight people lived inside this facility, growing their own food and using the biological systems that make up Biosphere 2, to survive.
"In my opinion, it was remarkably successful because no one had ever done it and it hasn't really been repeated. Every facility that we see people living in, whether it's facilities that NASA has or other space agencies or private groups, they're all significantly smaller," he said.
You may wonder why anyone would even do this.
"The reason they built Biosphere 2, they wanted to fundamentally understand how Earth works, and we are a significant component of her systems and we influence and we impact those systems so having us as part of the experiment, was crucial," Adams explained.
He says if we're ever going to have a successful and sustainable life on Mars or the Moon, at some level we have to have those same systems in place in order to have social and psychological well-being.
And now, with a step-by-step guide directed through an app, you can experience what the lifeline was for those eight people, by going inside and walking through the biomes, which are a cornerstone for the University of Arizona's research.
One thing that might surprise you is how different it is from what we find here in the Southern Arizona desert.
"We have a subtropical savanna, we have a mangrove system like that you'd find in Southern Florida. We have a subtropical thorn scrub that you would only find if you took about two days drive into Northern Mexico and then finally on the southern end of Biosphere 2, you have a coastal desert. So if you spent any time on the Baja Peninsula in particular on that western edge, this is where you're going to find this vegetation community," Adams explained.
So set aside a few hours to go check it out, and thankfully since they're only 35 years into this one hundred year project, you've got plenty of time to stop by.
"Biosphere 2 is a time machine," Adams said. "It allows researchers to create conditions like that, that we are going to predict coming our way in the future to see what happens today."
From where KGUN 9 is on the eastside of town, it was 37 miles to Biosphere 2. Depending on your gas milage, that's about two gallons of gas, which should be about $6.
