Construction

With the second phase of construction of SAM we are quickly transitioning from refurbish to new construction (which is far more enjoyable). In the spring of 2021 we poured a new concrete slab between the Test Module and its lung to the south in order to provide a foundation for the new mini-split A/C units, and to reduce the amount of debris and dirt that got kicked up when working in that area. The result was clear, we needed to go ahead and pour a slab around the east and west sides of the Test Module when we moved to pour the concrete footings for the 20 and 40 foot shipping containers, our soon-to-be crew quarters.

Daniel, Ricard, and Fernando are a unique team. Highly skilled, extremely knowledgeable, and absolutely a joy to work with (as well as constant comic relief!, they were able to prepare the site from gravel and dirt to line and laser level in two mornings. Kai Staats assisted with validation of the critical measurements and sketches for the precise location of this exciting addition to SAM.

Next week, the concrete will be poured!

The lower lung extension of the Test Module pressure vessel had been left open for some thirty years. Every critter known to the Senoran desert had made a home of the dark, cool space below the steel pan and flexible EPDM membrane. It was, in scientific terms, disgusting. Our first effort to clean this space was conducted in the spring of 2021 with respirator, goggles, gloves, and sprayer with a bleach-water solution to stabilize the waste and debris.

Trent and Kai inflated the lung and then attached the stilts to enable safe work beneath. Kai power-washed the underside of the pan and membrane twice. Kai and Trent then removed the loose paint with scrapers and orbital sanders, scrubbed with water and brush, and wet-mopped. The difference was night to day.

While we have experimented with latex paints in the Test Module, it became clear that water-based paints simply do not offer the needed protection for metal surfaces against further rust and corrosion. We therefore applied a Rust-O-Leum product designed to secure bare metal and rusted surfaces, followed by an oil-based enamel. The result is a highly durable, easy to clean surface that will give the lower lung another decade of function with minimal maintenance. The enamel paint will have six months to cure, more than ample to stabilize the VOCs.

Thank you volunteer Colleen Cooley for returning to SAM and lending a hand in this effort.

We have received shipment of our second shipping container, this a hi-cube, non-insulated 20 foot unit that will serve as the corridor between the Test Module and the 40 foot crew quarters. We have also detected and marked all buried gas and electrical lines in advance of the new concrete footings that will secure the shipping containers.

With the effort to remove the five, small greenhouse structures west of the Test Module and large greenhouse completed by Laura Blystone and her team, Kai, Trent, and Sean set to cleaning after a summer of intense wind and rain that brought down most of the remaining roof panels from the original, thirty years old structure.

We recycled the plywood removed from the west wall of the large greenhouse structure, standing six sheets vertically against the south wall of the large greenhouse, what will be the 6400 square-foot indoor Mars yard. In review of several photos taken by various Mars rovers, we selected an initial paint color to represent the martian sky and applied it to the plywood following a coat of primer.

Terry moved six tractor loads of crushed basalt against the plywood to form a miniature martian landscape. With this in place, we have a diorama with which we can explore a color palette for the future, sculpted concrete, scaled crater that will cover the entire length and width of this building.

With the start of our second phase of development of SAM, we decided it would be ideal to have a home-base of operations beyond our campus apartment and the shipping container adjacent to the Test Module, a space for SAM planning, systems design, and development of components vital to first-team missions and operations.

In June Biosphere 2 Deputy Director John Adams allocated one of the three buildings in the lower B2 parking lot for the SAM Operations Center. This building had been used as storage for B2 cleaning supplies, linens, dish ware, and office supplies; and the building we would move these items into was equally full with pre-COVID K-12 staff offices, supplies, and more storage.

Early in October Trent and Kai dove into sorting, moving, and cleaning both buildings to establish the SAM operations center and to help the B2 staff regain organization and efficiency for daily operations as the Biosphere 2 ramped back up toward a pre-COVID level of daily and conference center visitors.

With this initial effort concluded we have the foundation of an operations center complete with a kitchen, library, mission control center, conference room, and workshop. Next we will determine the desired layout of the operations center and engage in re-construction in parallel to the vital effort of expanding the Test Module pressure vessel with the crew quarters.

It is our pleasure to bring to a close Phase I development and construction of a Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (SAM) at Biosphere 2. This past six months of research, design, engineering, and hands-on construction has been a tremendous labor of passion by Kai Staats, Trent Tresch, Biosphere 2 Deputy Director John Adams, Tim Mcmullen and Terry Murchek of Biosphere 2’s maintenance staff, intern Natasha Loving, and our volunteers Cameron Smith, KC Shasteen and Michael Blum, Linnaea Groh and Atila Meszaros, Robert David and Angus Gluck, Colleen Cooley, Trenton Kenney, and Jolene Varga and Rob Ronci.

We thank Executive Director Joaquin Ruiz and Deputy Director of Research Cherry Murray and the whole of the Biosphere 2 staff for continued, daily support; Murat Kacira and Gene Giacomelli of the University of Arizona Controlled Environment Agriculture Center; and Doug Hocksteed and Rakhi Gibbons of TechLaunch Arizona for the initial round of funding. Jude Yandow was instrumental in keeping the finances in order and Julie Stringer for helping us navigate the complex framework of the University.

We look forward to returning in September to dive back into SAM construction, with the first of three shipping containers already in place for the 1200 sq-ft crew living quarters.

See you then!

We did it! We completed the first seal of the fully refurbished Test Module at Biosphere 2! The experience was extraordinary, a true celebration of the effort to bring this iconic prototype pressure vessel back to life!

The day started with long-time B2 electrician Kevin installing a new 100A, 3-phase disconnect in our primary panel at SAM. Then Chris Kaufmann, Brian Scott, Neal Barto, Emma Menden, and Michael Mason from University of Arizona CEAC delivered, assembled, and transplanted a full suite of food cultivars (some 180 in all), the first to arrive to SAM. Trent moved the CO2 scrubber into place while John and Kai established a base-line for the sensor array, both internal to and external to the sealed Test Module. Leonardo Buono, a veteran filmmaker was on-site for the entire day to both film and manage the lung inflation fan and valve.

With a few words spoken prior to entry, the crew walked inside and sealed the door.

Kai Staats, Trent Tresch, John Adams, Katie Morgan, and a writer were sealed inside for four and a quarter hours. While monitoring the CO2, O2, temperature, relative humidity, and barometric pressure, they played Xtranaut, a board game developed by Dr. Dante Lauretta at the University of Arizona, Principal Investigator for OSIRIS-REx, the spacecraft that is returning a sample from the carbonaceous asteroid Bennu. Finally, this first team to enter the fully refurbished Test Module assembled a FarmBot, an open source precision agriculture CNC farming tool. Our unit was donated to SAM by founder Rory Aronson. It is beautifully constructed, an elegant machine we are eager to employ later this year.

This marks the first time in 30 years that humans have been sealed inside the Test Module and the completion of Phase I construction of SAM, a Space Analog for the Moon and Mars at Biosphere 2.

We were honored to have colleagues and family waiting outside SAM for the duration of the test run, greeting us as we exited at 8:30 pm with a bottle of bubbly and lemonade. Thank you for your support, and for keeping Leo company!

Now, we have data to analyze, photos and video to process, and six months of work to bring to a close.

Test Module Dry Run | Five Persons Sealed Inside | Data Analysis

Following six months demolition, construction, and revitalization of the prototype for the Biosphere 2, the Test Module is sealed and pressurized for the first time in 30 years! Kai Staats, Trent Tresch, and Biosphere 2 Deputy Director John Adams discuss this important endeavor and then activate the blower which causes the lung to inflate and the massive pan to rise, providing a hermetically sealed space within the Test Module.

Test Module Dry Run | Five Persons Sealed Inside | Data Analysis

Diagram of the Test Module and Lung, circa 1987

The Test Module lung was developed as a “method of managing the effects an internal temperature and external barometric pressure change could cause in a fixed, sealed, glass structure. This problem was solved with a variable volume system joined to the module by an air duct. With increased temperature or decreased barometric pressure in the Test Module compared to the out- side environment, the variable chamber expands; with a decrease in temperature or a increase in pressure, the chamber contracts. The lung structure provides an effective means to prevent the possibility that the Test Module would implode or explode when subjected to these forces. The reservoir of air provided an increased buffering; adding approximately 20-40% to the total atmospheric volume. The weight of the pan on the lung structure insured a positive displacement from inside the closed system to the outside.” — Abigail Alling, Linda Leigh, Taber MacCallum, and Norberto Alvarez-Romo. Biosphere 2 test module experimentation program. Biological Life Support Systems 23 (1990): 32.

This week was the last, big push for resealing the Test Module and lung—dozens of small details and a few substantial undertakings before our first pressure tests on Monday.

There are 18 points at which the Test Module pressure vessel is penetrated, including the entrance and a 7-port gas exchange manifold. In the 1987-89 test runs these served various purposes: monitoring the internal air and water (drinking, waste, marsh); moving sensor data over physical cables; exchanging hot and cold water for the heat exchanger then mounted in the overhead space frame. The clean water inlet will be reainted, but used sparingly (everything that goes in, stays in). The 3″ diameter copper feeds for the heat exchanger are terminated and capped. Since the ’80s much has changed in data transmission. Now a single wireless feed can readily transmit a vast quantity of real-time data and video. However, two hard line connections (Ethernet, USB) will be installed in order to rebuild or update computers and embedded devices (e.g. WiFi router), and as a back up should the wireless go down.

As such, we have reduced the number of ports to:

• A fresh water inlet
• Wired data (Ethernet + USB)
• Electrical feeds from the external, primary panel to the internal sub-panel
• Continued use of the original, 7-port gas exchange manifold
• Two new manifolds for the mini-split heat pumps (coolant, power)

The lung is an adjacent structure connected to the Test Module by means of a 100 cubic foot, underground corridor (tube) large enough to crawl through. The lung is composed of a concrete structural frame and welded steel, cylindrical wall and floor. The upper lip of the cylinder is sealed to the larger end of the flexible rubber membrane (not unlike the rubber used on inflatable river rafts) from which is suspended a 22 foot diameter steel pan which itself is attached to the lower end of the membrane, and re-sealed (per our effort today). The area above the pan is open to the outside air. The area below the pan is an extension of the Test Module volume itself, with air movement through the restricted corridor.

The lung also has more than 20 penetrations. All but five were capped or plugged. As with the Test Module, all unused ports in the lung are sealed with Teflon tape over threaded plugs or caps.

As such, the functional ports are:

• A single feed gas manifold (may or may not be retained)
• Lung inflation fan with 3″ ball valve
• Electrical feed to lights
• Water column pressure release “P” trap

The inflated lung provides a positive pressure internal to the living space, an automated compensation for both internal temperature changes and external barometric pressure changes, and a buffer such that for the duration of a simulation, a hermetic seal may be maintained. The better the total seal, the longer a simulation can run without adding outside air.

When the Test Module and lung were inspected in the fall of 2020, it was clear that a great deal of work would be needed to regain a fully sealed function. The curved steel ring segments that held the rubber membrane in place were completely rusted from thirty years of water and weather, to the point that many of the threaded rods simply snapped off or turned to dust in one’s fingers.

Kai, Trent, and a host of volunteers have worked on various aspects of lung repair since January ’21, focused on patching the membrane itself, restoring the surface of the lower ring, welding 220 new threaded rods (studs), sealing against further rust, and then, finally, restoring the seal with a new set of individual 4″ stainless steel plates, replacing the nine heavily rusted angle iron rings segments. Furthermore, the outer shell of the lung has been completely sealed with silicone caulk and a 100% elastomeric such that only in the worst storms might a small amount of wind driven rain find its way onto the upper, external facing side of the membrane.

As of the posting of this photo essay, the silicone is a half dozen hours into a 72 hours cure. We are confident that we have a solid seal between the membrane and the lower ring of the steel pan. With the lower lung door rebuilt and ready to be installed there are no known open ports or holes in the entire pressure vessel. However, we remain aware that one or more holes may exist and that no system is fully sealed.

Our fingers are crossed for success in pressurizing the Test Module for the first time in thirty years!

Stay tuned!