Visitors to SAM

[from left to right: Olivia Drayson, Michael Laine, Kai Staats, Bruce Mackenzie, Caleb Pool, Daniel Thompkins, Hope Zubrin, Robert Zubrin, Doug Plata, Andre Fernandez, and Ashton Zeth]

We are honored to have Mars Society Robert Zubrin and several 2023 conference volunteers and staff visit Biosphere 2 for a tour of the historic facility and SAM. Director of Research for SAM at Biosphere 2 Kai Staats provided the group with a four and a half hours tour including all of the biomes, historic living quarters, south lung and ‘technosphere’, and then SAM and the adjacent Mars yard and terrain park, currently under construction.

It was an engaging morning and afternoon with plentiful conversations and debates for the challenges of humans establishing long-term residence on Mars.

There are those things that if planned would not likely have worked nearly as well as they did when implemented last minute. Such was the case with the night tour of SAM. The majority of the Analog Astronaut Conference 2023 participants arrived in the SAM Mars yard at roughly 9:30 pm, eager for a comparison to the previous year in which SAM was little more of a skeleton of its current form.

The SAM crew opened the entire facility to a shoes-off tour of the completed Phase I facility, including (last minute decision applied) a full pressurization of the habitat with some thirty folks sealed inside. Once settled in the lung, they took advantage of the unique acoustic space with harmonic chanting, and were then audience to our very own Dr. Sean Gellenbeck who is not only a PhD aerospace engineer but a choir member as well. He shared his talent with humble approach, bringing tears and applause in those seated in the lower SAM pressure vessel.

But there remained another 45 folks in the Mars yard, waiting to get in! Instead of depressurizing we moved those inside out, and those outside in through the fully functional airlock, six people at a time. It was, quite simply, incredible. Every six person group that emerged was met with applause and those who entered crawled the length of the tunnel, down into the lung for another acoustic experience.

Thank you everyone for bringing your sense of adventure and beautiful voices to SAM!

Today we were honored to receive Executive Director James Burk and several of the Mars Society staff and volunteers to Biosphere 2 and SAM. B2 Executive Director John Adams and Research Director at SAM Kai Staats provided a tour of B2 and then a visit to SAM with walk-through of the Test Module, Workshop, and Crew Quarters under construction.

SAM is in many ways given form on the foundation laid by Biosphere 2 and more than two decades in which the Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) more than 1000 individuals have worked to help our species prepare to live and explore beyond our home world.

“Thank you Robert Zubrin, Shannon Rupert, and the many analogs worldwide for the inspiration to design and construct SAM.” — Kai Staats

Today we had the sincere pleasure of receiving Bernd Zabel, project manager for the Biopshere 2 construction and team member in the second (1994) sealed mission.

As with our time spent with Phil Hawes and Linda Leigh in 2021, it was a true honor to receive his passion, intellect, and stories for the challenges and rewards of the audacious Biosphere 2 project, reinforcing what can be done with vision and focus toward a single goal (and a sense of humor along the way).

“I was again a bit nervous receiving one of the Biospherians, thinking, What will he think of our modifications and additions to the Test Module? On our tour Bernd expressed his enthusiasm, saying more than once ‘This is beautiful!’ A few times he stopped with a puzzled look on his face, as he worked to recall how things were originally configured. ‘Our water storage tank was over there, and here was …”

When we came to the airlock I noted, “We pulled this from the basement of B2. Do you know its history?” to which Bernd responded with a grin, “Well, I should hope so. I built it!” and went on to share how it was quickly put together to isolate part of the Biosphere 2 during construction and early pressure tests. Thank you Bernd for your engaging support of our work at SAM, and surely we will host a SAM workshop at your resort in Costa Rica soon!” –kai

Born in Germany, Bernd was raised in Munich where he graduated with a Master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Technical University. Following extensive travel in Africa and Asia as a student, he made a trip across America to investigate alternative energy systems. He landed at the Synergy Ranch in New Mexico to conduct experiments in fully integrated production systems where the end products of one stage become the raw materials for the next. He designed and operated systems for water-conserving arid land agriculture, water harvesting, wind and solar energy, composting, and aquaculture.

In 1985 Bernd joined the Biosphere 2 project as General Manager of construction for the two-acre sealed experimental system. In 1994 he served as a member of the second team for a six months, and under Columbia University was Director of Engineering and Operations for the atmosphere, living conditions, and physical structure of Biosphere 2. Bernd worked in Tibet to bring running water to a monastery and consulted in Inner Mongolia at a demonstration project to stop desertification. From 2001-07 Bernd served as the systems engineer at the Garchen Buddhist Institute in Prescott Arizona. Thereafter he and his wife developed Biothermales, a resort in Costa Rica.

Presently Bernd is returning to his Biosphere roots and developing a material-sealed dome structure in which he will again experiment with total systems integration. Bernd is also an accomplished artist who had several exhibits of paintings.

The Arizona Space Business Roundtable held its monthly meeting at the Biosphere 2! The evening started with a walking tour of SAM (Space Analog for the Moon and Mars) at 4:00 pm followed by the Roundtable presentation and discussion at 5:30.

In summary, Stephen Flemming writes, “We had a great turnout at Biosphere 2 last night… about 40 people made the drive up from Tucson or down from Phoenix! We ran until 7:30 pm, so I know a lot of people didn’t get home until a lot later than usual. Thanks for taking the time!

We were welcomed by John Adams, Deputy Director of Biosphere 2, then Kai Staats led a walk-through of the SAM facility which is being built as a Space Analog for the Moon and Mars. You can learn about SAM at samb2.space/.

Biosphere 2 set a new standard for the Arizona Space Business Roundtable by providing pizza, which we enjoyed before a pair of lectures by Kai and Trent and a lively Q&A session. The audience enjoyed learning about the plans for SAM and the opportunities it creates for academic, industry, startup, and government activities. It’s an amazing resource available to the Arizona space exploration community. We should take advantage of it!

SAM needs volunteers to help with construction and, like everything else, needs money. If you have an interest in contributing time, treasure, or attention, please contact Kai via the SAM contact form.

Today we were honored to receive Linda Leigh, one of the original eight Biospherians and Biome Design Manager for the rainforest, savannah, and desert where she was responsible for coordinating the planning of B2’s land sections as well as collecting, storing, propagating and transferring more than 2,000 plant species for the original 1991-93 experiment. She was featured in the 2020 documentary film “Spaceship Earth“. Linda conducted the longest stay in the Biosphere 2 prototype Test Module, sealed inside for three weeks. All of her air, water, food, and waste were recycled by the plant systems contained within. The fully refurbished Test Module is now cornerstone to SAM, the habitat analog being constructed at Biosphere 2.

Linda was joined by Douglas May, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Arizona. Doug mentors the Engineering Capstone team projects each year, and was involved in the team that recently completed the Automated Pressure Regulation System for SAM. Trenton Kenney, volunteer at SAM for the month of June from the University of Minnesota and NASA intern is between Linda and Doug in the banner photo.

We enjoyed Linda’s stories about her time in the Test Module and are eager to learn more about her time in the Biosphere 2 and continued work as a plant ecology instructor and manager of the Oracle Community Learning Garden.

Welcome back Linda! We look forward to your next visit to SAM!

The following material is consolidated from interview with Linda for an article for the Edge Effect, 2021.

In her early undergraduate days, Linda was inspired by a University of Wisconsin-Madison botany professor, Dr. Hugh Iltis. Exuberant in his love of earth’s diversity, he painted a grim picture of a diminished-diversity Earth with only robins and white-tailed deer remaining. They traveled to nearby patches of native tall-grass prairies and burned them, learning about nature’s “services” and how, in the absence of natural processes such as fire, humans could take their place in an attempt to maintain ecosystem diversity. This set the scene for her use of a systems approach to understanding the earth. Before Linda joined the team at Biosphere 2, she worked as a field botanist locating endangered plant species’ habitats for recommendation as conservation sites.

In 1985 Linda joined Biosphere 2 as the “Biome Design Manager” for the rainforest, savannah, and desert, contracting specialists in termites, ants, aquatic insects, galagos, reptiles and amphibians, rainforest plants, soils, desert plants, and many more. Her team worked to answer the questions How many individuals of each species would be needed for 100 years of survival, and what were their pollinators? Did we have enough plants to provide the oxygen we would need? Since her work at Biosphere 2 she has worked in research and as a professional educator. She co-founded and manages the Oracle Learning Community Garden with intent to build habitats for migrating birds, insects, and bats while maintaining diversity of species for feeding people with plants that are appropriate to this region.

(Trent, Phil, and Kai have received full COVID vaccinations and were outdoors for the duration of this visit)

In the academic world the apprenticeship model is cornerstone to the transmission of knowledge and skills, made strong through the publication of research, experiment design, and data. Outside of academia, the world often takes for granted how we arrived to our knowledge base, to our technological prowess and industrial fortitude.

In our work on the Test Module, the prototype for the Biosphere 2 and now centerpiece for SAM, we have asked myriad questions (in our minds) of the Biospherians, Why did they build it that way? What was this used for? How did they come up with this idea? and What happens if we replace that with this? Taber MacCallum and William Dempster have been gracious with support and guidance via remote. In our pandemic riddled world it was unexpected to spend time with the third member of this design and engineering team, an individual who helped lay the foundation for the Test Module in which we stand. Today we had the honor of receiving Phil Hawes, architect of record (1985 -1992) for Biosphere 2 who worked closely with Dempster and MacCallum to design and build the Test Modules in 1986-87.

Phil spent the better part of two hours with us, telling stories of the architecture, technology, biology and ecology, and social dynamics that made Biosphere so unique. He emphasized (as needs to be emphasized again and again) that no experiment “fails” as long as we learn from the outcome. The failure would be to not learn from those aspects of the experiment that unfolded in ways unexpected.

Following his departure Trent and I (Kai) repeated the mantras shared by Phil, an echo from more than three decades prior that needs to be shared now even more than before:

1. “Throw your heart in front of you and then run to catch up!”
2. “Take risks and have adventures!”
3. “Courage!” to do bold things that others will say can’t be done.

Sometimes leaders accomplish difficult tasks by act of will alone, for competition, or for profit. But those who truly shape the next generation do what they do because they love doing it. Others follow as a celebration of the process and the goal. Phil is relentless in his pursuit of the art and science of sustainable living both on this planet and beyond. He shared with us photos of a scale model he recently completed for a 19 acre sustainable community in Fairfield, Iowa. It was beautiful in its simplicity, layout, and flow. Thank you Phil for bringing us into your past and present as we move to reshape our shared future, on this planet and beyond.

One of the most knowledgeable and dedicated green architects on this planet, Phil Hawes has been a leading pioneer in alternative design and construction for more than 40 years. He has worked on projects in sustainable design, and educational programs in architecture, ecology, and community planning in California, Arizona and Washington State, and in Portugal, France, Nepal, and Australia; he continues his work in sustainable community development. Phil studied with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West in 1955-56. He holds a B.A. in Architectural Design from the University of Oklahoma and a Ph.D. in Sustainable Community Design from the San Francisco Institute of Architecture.