Researcher exits sealed Biosphere 2 facility following two-week experiment
October 27, 2025, 5:00 PM MST
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – For the first time in more than three decades, a human was sealed inside a Biosphere 2 facility with nothing but plants to clean the air.
Matthias Beach spent two weeks sealed in SAM, or the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars, a 1,100 square-foot facility meant to simulate a spaceship.
“I can’t wait to do it again, believe it or not,” Beach said after exiting the pod.
The experiment monitored Beach’s carbon dioxide emissions. For the first week, he lived alongside 144 pea plants, which cleaned the air of CO2. During the second week, the plants were removed from the facility, theoretically increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air.
While data hasn’t yet been analyzed, Beach said sensors showed an obvious increase in CO2 emissions once the plants were removed – something he noticed while living in the pod.
“You can definitely smell the difference and smell the humidity and smell the green in there, and without it, it seemed kind of like a spaceship,” Beach said.
The goal is to determine which plants are best suited to bring to space when we become an interplanetary species – making space travel as Earth-like as possible. “It provides, obviously, nutrients and calories. It also provides a means by which we can capture carbon dioxide and convert it to oxygen, which happens around us every single day in the real world. And it provides a psychological benefit – people love working with plants,” said Kai Staats, the research director on the project.
Staats said this is just the start of years-long experimenting that will further their knowledge on how the future of space exploration may look. “When a human’s physiological patterns are slightly chaotic, that introduces a chaotic function to the system – we need to know that,” said Staats.
Beach said he’s just excited to be a part of something that might turn into something huge.
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CORRECTION—in the video segment (top), the new anchor incorrectly states the mission was conducted inside of Biosphere 2; and the reporter states SAM is a “Space Analog for the Moon and Stars” but should be “Moon & Mars”.
