Construction

When the original rain forest greenhouse was built in the mid 1980s, it was known that the polycarbonate panels would need to be replaced, eventually, but by whom? With one round of repair (based on a discussion with a long-time Biosphere 2 staff member), they lasted more than 30 years. But in the end, the roof and all wall panels must be replaced. This effort began two years ago with replacement of the roof (see Through the Roof and New Roof) and continues now with the four walls, the East and West in the worst shape given the intensity of the sun, wind, and rain.

Matthias, Sean, and Luna have spent three months, juggling myriad other tasks, with this no-one-really-wants-to-do-it task. Matthias has lead the charge, holding the team to a high quality standard. There is nothing simple or easy about it, and no contractor could do a better job. Each panel must be custom cut to match width and height and curve of the overhead greenhouse arches. The top of each panel must be sealed with aluminum tape. Two kinds of screws are applied, some with sealed gasket roofing heads, other rubber backed washers to spread the pressure and keep out the water. The final product is then caulked with 795, a product that will likely outlast the new panels themselves.

The end result is stunning!

Kai, Matthias, and Luna have continued to work on the SAM Ops kitchen in between the third crewed mission and construction of the Mars crater, and when the sun was simply too damned hot to be working on installation of the polycarbonate panels at the Mars yard.

In early 2024 Kai installed the kitchen cabinets, essentially rebuilding the otherwise flimsy cabinets purchased from Home Depot (lesson learned, again) with nearly 40 feet of 2×4 framing added beneath and behind to provide something rigid and long lasting. The team deliberated on the kind of countertop, from prefab Formica to custom concrete to copper or glass. In the end, butcher block was chosen as it continues the Ops theme of hi-tech space exploration brought back down to Earth with wood desks, window blinds, and futon frames.

Installing under-counter support frames was the most challenging endeavor for the interior of this fully renovated 1990s manufactured building are steel studs—the worst for any kind of addition. Using various anchors and bolts, the butcher block counter was installed and prepared for the sink and backsplash tile.

Matthias conducted a good bit of research and sorted through the various techniques to determine the best combination of mastic, grout, and tile. His meticulous craftsmanship shines through in the gorgeous end product (grout yet to be applied).

With the refrigerator and microwave in place, a food prep island and dishes already received, we are nearly complete with the SAM Ops kitchen and eatery.

With the completion of the sculpted Mars yard and third Analog Astronaut Conference hosted by the Biosphere 2, the SAM crew moves into its second summer of continued effort, with a number projects unfolding at the same time. Last year Matthias Beach, Sean Gellenbeck, Tasha Coelho, and Mason Robbins worked June through September to complete renovation of the former Biosphere 2 rain forest greenhouse in preparation for installation of the SAM Mars yard, with an expanded and far more functional workshop for continued fabrication and construction.

Now, Matthias and Luna are completing the replacement of the original polycarbonate with new, darker tinted panels for less total thermal gain. The old panels had become brittle and were broken in many places, some sections blown out from strong, Arizona winds. With the new roof installed in July of 2022, all new wiring and rebuilt west wall in the summer of 2023, this begins the final effort to give this 1980s construct a new purpose for the next decade or two.

When it’s too hot to be on the scissor lift in the Arizona sun, Matthias is working in the SAM lower lung, replacing the original, rigid electrical conduit with Carflex, restoring the 3-way light function, and replacing the original florescent lights with modern LEDs for less power consumption and greater reliability. Luna is assisting Matthias and painting conducting the final scraping, sanding, priming, and painting of the lung walls and pan rim. This is the last, major interior restoration of the original Test Module and lung.

Kai, Matthias, and Luna continue to renovate the SAM Operations Center with the recent installation of a custom built butcher block countertop, sink, microwave, fridge, and more while Luna brings order to the chaos of the storage room following a juggernaut April and May.

Sean and Luna are designing and mid June fabricating the third prototype of the hydroponics rack. Once proved with a full growth cycle, three additional units will be built to complete this phase of bioregeneration capacity building with the ultimate goal of reproducing Linda Leigh’s single crew member, three weeks stay in SAM with all air fully recycled by plants.

We are honored to have Dr. James Knox, a former, career NASA aerospace engineer and principal developer of the CO2 scrubber for the International Space Station now working with us to design a custom scrubber for SAM. This original design and fabrication, lead by Sean, will enable us to engage full mechanical air recycling such that we can move from physico-chemical to bioregeneration in a single mission—the underlying goal for both the SIMOC simulator and the real world SAM research station.

Bindhu is updating the SAM Operations Manual, crew “cuff notes”, and working to establish an umbrella IRB. This is imperative for ability to engage multiple science objectives at SAM that carry data relevant to human related research objectives.

Tasha is working with Kai to develop the foundation for an educational curriculum around the new geologically accurate Mars yard such that primary and secondary school kids might enjoy an hour or a half day at SAM exploring the Mars yard through experiential learning and discovery. The same foundation will also apply to more advanced exploration by SAM crews, drones, and rovers.

Needless to say, we remain engaged!

As with the prior three summers, these photos essays will be reduced in frequency until September or October.

Stay cool! And stay tuned!

The Mars yard at SAM is complete, save the near-future introduction of crushed basalt and basalt boulders to cover the currently exposed concrete slab. The Reduced Gravity Simulator is fully operational, with the prototype built principally from wood being rebuilt in welded aluminum over the summer for a lighter, more stiff frame and smoother operation.

And then came the scenics, a breed of artist unlike the plasterers or the sculptors before them. Quiet like the brushes they employ, subdued like the hints of red, butterscotch, and gray applied, Juan, Danni, and Christina also see the world in three dimensions—not as massive blocks of carved foam or layers of sprayed concrete, but in concentric applications of paint that build depth in color through time.

Referring to the same set of laminated photos as the two prior teams, the scenics apply dark hues beneath overhangs to create permanent shadow, and they create a sense of time through the hi-lights on the leading edges of rock ledges, mineral stains from long forgotten (even if geologically recent) movements of water. And when Danica or Kai would note a synthetic rock surface too bright or too bold for the atmosphere of Mars, within minutes color theory became color reality and the issue was resolved without hesitation or complaint for the second or third effort on that same section of the SAM Mars yard.

The transformation of Polystyrene foam blocks into a Mars landscape requires vision, skill in sculpting, shooting concrete, and painting; and effective management. The first and last are exemplified by Red Hen founder Danica Vallone who maintains a relationship with some 250 individuals working in set design and construction, and her brother and production manager Demian Vallone who brings patience, diligence, and hands-on collaboration to the construction floor. At the SAM Mars yard Danica and her team have transformed drawings and photographs into three dimensions, demonstrating a deep understanding of form, texture, and color and the physical tools used to employ them.

The sculptors (as noted in prior blog entries) hold what is perhaps the most challenging of the processes— making those first cuts into the massive blocks of foam with a vision toward the end product that they may never see. This process is principally one of subtracting material, cutting into square blocks to remove initially large and then increasingly smaller pieces using hot wire knives, chain saws, horse brushes, three pronged picks, and an assembly of home-built hand and power tools. Material is added too, building beyond the otherwise imposed limit of a wall or corner, as with the rockfall in the southeast corner of the SAM Mars yard.

With the shapes established, the plaster crew covers the foam with a thin layer of a custom blend of Poly-bond structural concrete, sand, and adhesives designed to bond to foam. This concrete is tinted to establish a base color such that the final, painter crew can work from that base color with less effort and material, as compared to starting from a standard concrete gray.

While Hollywood sets built from foam are typically covered with 1/8″ concrete, thicker for areas on which actors might walk, the SAM Mars yard is 1/4″ nominal with the west wall K-rock covered in expanded steel, steel mesh, and in some areas up to two inches hand-troweled concrete.

Three sculptors were at SAM for eight days. The four plasterers are slated for just two days (starting today). And as of this coming Sunday two painters will be at SAM for four days. Each crew brings to this project some of the finest talent in Hollywood, with individuals who have two or three generations in skill and experience in their respective trades. The quality of production against an impossible timeline has been truly awe inspiring and points directly to Red Hen’s ability to manage such a complex endeavor.

BELOW: Luna Powell scatters real stones obtained from a local quarry on the shelves and outcrops of the north wall as the plaster team applies the first layer of shocrete to the south wall of the SAM Mars yard. The blue color is a layer of “Weldcrete”, a kind of chemical adhesive that helps the Polybond-based shotcrete adhere to the foam.

(Above) Kai Staats installs simulated pathways for Mars gypsum deposits—nylon rope pinned to foam blocks to be covered by shotcrete and then hand painted, perhaps encrusted with real minerals embedded in an epoxy resin in a later phase.

The sculptors completed their work in foam, applying final textures and geological interfaces while SAM team member Matthias applied expanded steel and mesh to the K-Rock feature, reinforcing the areas on which SAM crew members might walk while on EVA. The existing concrete slab was covered by rose paper before Demian of Red Hen sprayed the blue Weldcrete adhesive, providing a chemical adhesion layer between the foam and shotcrete.

In the SAM Mars yard at Biosphere 2, the sculpted foam provides the robust shape of sedimentary layers, lava, solidified dunes, and rockfalls that define the very challenge of the geologist to unravel time. The application of the concrete gives solid form and texture to the otherwise too fragile structure made principally of trapped air. And while the two of these alone are ample to give visitors to this Mars yard a story to discover, it is the subtle shifts in color that make clear the differentiations of an ancient lake bed from the unconformity on which it lies or the iron concretions about to break free from the shelf on which they lie.

But when all the images captured by rovers on Mars for more than forty years are digital in origin and processed by computers, How does one know the true colors of Mars?

We called upon the distant Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, reviewing myriad photos they have generated against the same color metrics applied to the photos received on Earth by NASA and countless university students and researchers. The on-board Mars rover color calibration targets provide a baseline to inform how one might adjust the pixel values, from the raw image to a color balance given the atmospheric conditions of that day, to what that landscape might look like if on Earth instead. The latter becomes important as we compare features on Earth to those on Mars in order to ascertain their origin.

SAM team member and planetary geology student Tasha Coelho built an image deck based on her work in Dr. Jim Bell’s lab at the School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University. Luna Powell then prepared six sample tints for the baseline concrete color upon which the painters hired by Danica Vallone of Red Hen Industries will push and pull highlights and shadows to give this one-of-a-kind construct its own life.

Sunday, April 21 began with an all-hands team meeting led by Danica Vallone. The prior two days with geologist Christopher Hamilton has altered the design to a degree that required a reset for some of the design expectations. Kai, Tasha, and Luna had printed a few dozen more images at various sizes and zoom factors. Danica then pinned them to the design board, a 6″ thick foam sheet with a marker rendering of the south wall, where each photo provided the required detail for the sculpting team to move ahead.

Monday, April 22 saw the sculpting team regain their anticipated rhythm with steady forward progress, the otherwise nondescript block of foam becoming recognized features, even to the untrained eye: a massive rock fall over an ancient lava flow adjacent to an even older evacuated lava tube.

Tuesday, April 23 began with a spray foam team arriving from Phoenix, setting up their air flow tent, and then applying a #4 density foam to the inside and outside of the rebar, chicken wire, and burlap lava tube built by Matthias, Luna, Kai, and Sean. During the spray foam endeavor, Kai took the sculptors Steve, Rob, and Kat on a tour of Biosphere 2.

Lava tube set and strong enough to walk on (but we won’t), the sculpting team returned their work (donning respirators) while the spray foam crew cut loose the over-spray and cleaned up.

As the Red Hen team moved into the afternoon of its third day in construction of the SAM Mars yard, University of Arizona professor of Planetary Geology Dr. Christopher Hamilton arrived for his first visit to SAM. Following a brief introduction to the project and tour of the initial representation of geological features on Mars, Chris dove in with the full fervor and intent of an actual geological survey and research project.

Over the course of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning Chris spent the better part of six hours with Director of Research for SAM Kai Staats, ASU planetary geology student Tasha Coelho, and founder of Red Hen Danica Vallone to guide development of details for features already carved in foam, then formulate the juxtaposition of layers not yet sculpted in order to tell a cohesive story for the total, exposed stratigraphy. Once complete, the SAM Mars yard will tell a realistic geologically story.

Kai, Danica, Tasha, and Chris moved between the Mars yard and the SAM Operations Center to compare photographs of rock layer examples on Earth and Mars to the proposed layering of this unique facility, then print and laminate images for the Red Hen sculpting team to employ.

Chris was tenacious, generating on-the-fly a complete strata profile with which the SAM geological story can be understood. Or for those engaged in an EVA of geological discovery, investigate the layers and features presented in order to generate their own map, then compare to the intended sequence developed by Chris.