Construction

Atila Meszaros
We welcome the return of Atila Meszaros from his home country of Peru. Atila is graduate student at the University of Arizona, working principally under SAM Director of Research Kai Staats. Atila completed his first year and a half of classes from the fall of 2022 through the close of 2023, and is now set to engage in 18 months of research at SAM. His research is at the core of why SAM was designed and built—to establish baselines for human and plant studies in bioregeneration. Atila and Luna will be the principal directors of Phase II of our three phase study, with plant CO2 sequestration research starting in March and continuing through 2025.

SAM Surgical Bay Workshop
Bindhu and Kai lead the Surgical Bay workshop at B2 January 17-19. They welcomed five practicing surgeons to Biosphere 2 Friday afternoon, spent all of Saturday at SAM and in the B2 board room designing a medical bay capable of a dynamic array of surgical procedures, all conducted far, far from home. It was a unique event, with all home cooked food and catered meal (one of the attendees claimed Kai’s omelette was the best he had ever consumed!). There was no use of computers or slide presentations with a half day of hands-on design, discussion, and even an engineering challenge with wooden sticks, string, superglue and a few substantial rocks. It was casual, creative, stimulating, and engaging. Bindhu is now following up with the attendees, merging feedback to expand the draft paper written by Kai and Bindhu, while other team members explore state of the art in NAVY submarines and remote terrestrial habitats.

A study of the microbiome
Carter Hollings, University of Arizona undergrad in Biology has completed his first survey of the microbiome at SAM, having outlined several small squares (approximately 20cm x 20cm each) where he sterilized the surface and then a week later compared the swabs and samples. With the incoming APUS crew, our forth at SAM, Carter will again survey this built environment before and immediately following the 10 days mission. We are excited to learn from his first run as we are working in and around SAM, and then following the sealed mission.

New construction!
Daniel and his comedic crew of concrete workers returned to SAM for the third time to pour three slabs (now two weeks ago): new CO2 scrubber room, new IT room, and a new floor in SAM AIR. This was a major accomplishment, giving us foundation (pun intended) for a whole new set of high quality facilities at SAM.

Home Depot away from Home
Kai now officially lives at Home Depot with a record-setting 11.5 hr shopping spree on Thursday, January 23, with three visits to the north Oro Valley store. Kai retrieved the gravity-offset rig from the UA welding shop, which was this evening reassembled, adjusted, and is now fully operational. It is lighter, more stiff, quicker to respond, and far smoother in operation than the original wood and steel prototype.

Hydroponics
Luna worked with Jason, expert in everything plant-based at Biosphere 2, to transplant seedlings for the next hydroponics run in the TM during the APUS mission, February 9-18. While not a science run, this collection of greens (some from B2, some from Home Depot) will provide our visiting crew with a backdrop of edible plants to liven up their stay in SAM.

New IT room
Kai, Matthias, Griffin, and Luna framed in the two side walls and roof structure for the new IT room, located inside the historic 6400 sq-ft greenhouse structure that was originally part of the Biosphere 2 visitor experience. This room-inside-a-room will give us a clean, air conditioned space for the WiFi router, SIMOC Live, and SAM crew email server (with light-travel time delay), as well as data collection for the TM and any other systems we prefer to have at the bottom end of the radio link to Ops. In addition, Matthias and Griffin ran three new circuits to the location of the new IT room: air conditioning, critical computers, and accessories. Eager to install the buckets for lights, sockets, and switches.

A return to the lung
The SAM Lung is the prototype variable volume pressure regulation module that maintained pressure in the Test Module for more than three years of solo experiments while the Biospherians designed and built the Biosphere 2. This was the first structure that Kai and Trent set to renovate in 2021, and remains the last structure to be completed. It’s mostly below ground, difficult to enter, and hard to work on. After several more weeks effort, we are nearly done with one more coat of primer and then two coats enamel paint. Just last week Matthias and Bindhu pressure washed top of the metal pan and it looks much, much better! Ready to be primed .. but then it snowed and it’s too cold.

He’s back!
Master fabricator Nathan returned to SAM three weeks ago and as expected dove directly into a major effort to seal SAM. The number of leaks he has discovered in the 40′ is beyond what we expected, from tiny pin holes to major tears. In our last pressure test it was determined that the A/C unit continued to leak even after a massive amount of silicon was injected. So, we unmounted the head unit and rerouted the coolant and power lines through new hole in the side of the shipping container, allowing us direct access to the port such that we can test for and repair leaks more easily. The bathroom window has been completely removed and replaced with an all new polycarbonate construction. Nathan and Kai applied employed a version of the original Biospherian technique to seal the TM windows, resulting in what we believe will be a perfectly airtight seal. The TM/40 and 40/airlock bridges are fully rebuilt, and a dozen more leaks too. Fingers crossed for the next pressure test!

Patents in motion
While Cameron Smith, Kai Nevers, Trent Tresch, and Ivy Wahome designed and built a prototype tent for backpacking on Mars, Kai Staats outlined a half dozen new ideas for patents around an inflatable habitat for terrestrial exploration, on foot. Given Kai’s sketches and rough draft, Trent is now working to complete the submission of the IP to UA Tech Launch Arizona, with hope that one or more patents will come to fruition.

Trent Goes to NASA!
Our very own Trent Tresch was accepted by NASA to be a part of an 11 day stay in a reduced pressure analog at NASA Johnson Space Center. He will be living and working in a 9 psi (similar to 10,000 feet elevation) environment with increased O2 while conducting various activities and exercises to test for VO2 Max and cognitive abilities.

Well, that’s all we have for the first three weeks of January 🙂

Four years ago today Kai and Trent moved to the Biosphere 2 to undertake what they thought would be a six month renovation of the 1987 Test Module. Four years later, construction of the ever expanding facility continues with completion of the stunning Mars yard in April 2024, completion of a third generation hydroponics facility in September 2024, and now a new IT room at the SAM workshop, and the foundation poured for a new CO2 scrubber research facility as of Thursday, January 16, 2025.

It just keeps getting better!

The final hydroponic racks are complete!

After Sean and Luna built out prototype #4 earlier in the summer and decided that was the system that suited SAM best, Luna and Matthias got to work building three more copies in August. They were joined by Linda Leigh who was added to the SAM team in order to further her knowledge on hydroponic systems and be more involved at SAM. With their combined strengths they got to work assembling the racks.

The first step was to build the skeleton of the rack. Using 80/20 they built up the sides, leveled the bottom and added the shelves. Once everything was level and secure they moved on to adding the plant trays, two per shelf. This involved meticulous and precise cutting of the trays, then cleaning up and gluing caps on the ends. Once they were satisfied with the end result of the trays, it was all about PVC. They built out the pump, intake manifold, return manifold and water drops for each shelf. This took the majority of the time, measuring, cutting, gluing, testing and putting together.

There were a lot of ideas how everything should get done and what the final product should look like. With a couple shipping delays the team was finally able to test the racks. To their amazement there were no significant issues with the system—no large leaks or anything that could not be fixed with a few turns of a union. With just 3 days left to spare, everything was ready for the tomato experiment to go in on September 2nd! —by Luna Powell, Site Manager and Greenspace Researcher at SAM

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.