Biosphere 2

Friday, 21 December

Our first sight of the day was Biosphere 2 (http://biosphere2.org) located about 20 minutes north of the campground near Oracle, AZ.  

We arrived shortly after they opened and found the parking lots empty.  We are finding that many of tourist sights are not very crowded this time of year.  Perhaps people have other things on their mind?

Upon buying our tickets, we were told to proceed to the Lower Habitat for the tour, which was going to start in minutes.  Another recurring experience is we have made several tours with minutes to spare, resulting in not having to wait around for a tour.  Our tour had only 6 people in it.

Biosphere 2 was constructed in the late 1980s at a cost of $150 million.  It was designed to be fully self-contained environment.  There were two “missions” in the early 1990s where teams were living within the Biosphere, reliant on growing their own food, reusing water, regenerating their oxygen - all the sorts of things that would be necessary to colonize Mars.  The Wikipedia article references that the two missions failed.  I would suggest the outcome was different that desired.  On the first mission, the mission was ended as the caloric intake was less than needed, and participants were losing weight.  Also, the oxygen content of the air got low.  Plus interpersonal friction - perhaps like the TV show Survivor?  The second mission was ended when the management of the Biosphere had some sort of conflict over differences of opinion about how the mission was to operate.

We did the “Under the Glass” tour.  The tour started us in the rain forest.  

We then went to the ocean overlook, then to the desert area.  The tour then took us underground to see the mechanical systems to regulate the temperature, humidity, rainfall, and other environmental aspects.  Some of the experiments are looking at the effect of increasing carbon dioxide, warming temperatures, etc., evaluating how climate change may happen.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the Biosphere to us was the lung.  There are two lungs whose purpose is to allow the sealed Biosphere atmosphere to expand when it heated up, and contract when it cooled.  Very necessary as the original Biosphere was completely sealed - without a means to adjust the air pressure, the building, over 3 acres under glass, would explode or implode all the glass.  Quite an engineering feat that we found fascinating.

BTW, Biosphere 1 is the earth.  Biosphere 2 is a man made effort to have a mini, self-contained earth.

After visiting the Biosphere, we headed north to Apache Junction, AZ, located east of Phoenix near the Superstition Mountains.  Our first stop as the Goldfield Ghost Town.  One of the RVers we follow on social media had done a vlog about it, and said it was more authentic than Tombstone.  We found it to be a created tourist trap with a mining town theme.  A disappointment.  One positive was that there was no cost to wander the town and visit the shops.  

We then visited the Superstition Mountain - Lost Dutchman Museum (http://superstitionmountainmuseum.org) in Apache Junction, AZ.  

A small museum, it provides some of the history about the Superstition Mountains and the legend of the Lost Dutchman’s treasure.  Searching for the treasure has been pursued by many for decades, and people are still looking.  The grounds of the museum also had some relocated buildings from the movie set Apacheland, and a working stamp mill used to break ore apart for gold extraction.

Our campsite for the night was at Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, AZ, just under the towering Superstition Mountains.