But how will life survive on a hostile planet like Mars? Lovelock and others believe that life itself creates the environment for life to exist. In the beginning, their theory holds, Earth was as inhospitable to life as Mars. What made Earth receptive to more complex forms of life were microbes, which devoured poisonous wastes and transformed them into the chemicals that now make up the Earth`s atmosphere, which acts as a buffer against extreme life-threatening temperatures. Eventually, plants developed and began turning carbon dioxide into oxygen, which paved the way for animal life.
By ferrying at first a single biosphere and then a fleet of them to Mars, Allen proposes that life can gain a toehold there. Perhaps some day, as science advances, Allen says, microbes and the higher forms of life may slowly colonize Mars. Through human effort, bacteria will begin the process that began on Earth billions of years ago. Gases from biogeochemical transformation and oxygen brought from Earth will moderate the harsh Martian temperatures. Allen calls this process of using organisms to make Mars capable of sustaining life from Earth ”terraforming.”
”We will be ready by 1992 to plan, outfit and set in motion an expedition that can succeed in settlement,” Allen wrote in his 1986 book.
”What we know of Mars already beckons us.” He even has several Martian locations in mind, describing them as if he were a Realtor talking about a scenic area to be developed into lots for summer cabins. Coprates Canyon, for example, is ”an ancient tributary grand-canyon system that dwarfs our own–it stretches over 2,500 miles, is 120 miles wide and 2 miles deep. Another breathtaking location would be Olympus Mons–the largest known mountain in the solar system–a volcano over 400 miles across and 15 miles high. That makes it almost three times the height of Mt. Everest and about the size of Colorado!”
Russell ”Rusty” Schweickart, a former astronaut who is a consultant to the Biosphere II project, endorses Allen`s vision but says that a 1990s manned flight to Mars is probably overoptimistic. ”If there were a race to Mars, you could end up with a mission getting there in 2005 or 2010,” says Schweickart, one of the astronauts who tested the lunar landing module on an Apollo 9 mission. Terraforming is a process still beyond science, he adds. ”We are a long way from saying such a thing is possible.”
Schweickart believes exploration and colonization of Mars is vital from many standpoints but most of all because of Earth`s diminishing resources and the fact that setting such a goal for American society hones our technological skills. Now president of the Association of Space Explorers, a group of astronauts and cosmonauts from 16 countries, Schweickart is optimistic.
”There will certainly be life on the Moon and on Mars,” he predicts.
”Beyond that it gets a little fuzzy.” Whatever may cause our exodus from Earth, he says, the SBV Biosphere II project is fundamental. ”In terms of human settlement on other planets, biospheres will be essential.”
The National Commission on Space, a presidential study group with no financial ties to the Biosphere II project that is looking toward the space future of America, sees people living on Mars and the Moon within half a century. ”To explore and settle the inner solar system, we must develop biospheres,” a commission report says, praising Biosphere II in particular.
The concept of using a self-sufficient biosphere to colonize outer space was first proposed in detail in 1969 by Gerard O`Neill, a Princeton University physicist. In his book ”The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space,” he envisioned complex orbiting self-perpetuating habitats he called ”Islands”
that would allow humans to conduct research impossible on Earth and to mine mineral-rich asteroids over long time periods. What Allen and his organization have done is marry O`Neill`s idea to the science and philosophy of Lovelock, Vernadsky and others.
There has been precious little criticism of the Biosphere II project. The science behind it is extremely strong. If it has a drawback, says Dr. James Bredt, manager of Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems for the Life Sciences Division of NASA, it is that the biosphere is too much, too soon to be of use to the federal space program. For NASA`s use, Bredt says, ”it has to be small, light and energy efficient. Instead of tropical savannah, you would want to grow only what you`d eat. I don`t think you could envision shipping the components of a 5-million-cubic-foot building to Mars.”
To begin the habitation of Mars or the Moon, Bredt says, NASA is putting its money on a closed-system cylinder 14 feet in diameter and 40 feet long that can grow food for eight people. The cylinder will be buried some 200 to 300 meters under the lunar surface to protect it against intense radiation from solar flares. Astronauts will live in a separate habitat, venturing into the densely planted cylinder to harvest food. Artificial lights and heat will be powered by some type of solar energy generator. NASA hopes to have the technology for this kind of system developed by the turn of the century, Bredt says. There have been no U.S. tests involving humans, he says.
A Biosphere II stage would not come in, Bredt predicts, until some time after the first Earth colony is developed on the Moon or Mars. ”Even if we establish a lunar base, it would take 50 years for the industrial base to build up to the point where you could build something the size of Biosphere II,” he says. But although SBV is ahead of itself, Bredt adds, ”It`ll work. They are doing everything right. You can`t help but admire their enthusiasm. If anyone can make it work, I`m sure they can.”
Jeremy Rifkin is one of the few naysayers, believing that Biosphere II will not be a replica of Earth ”but a very crude approximation of what the eye can see. Our band of knowledge of the Earth`s ecosystem is extremely narrow. It will be a grandiose project, but it`s a pipe dream. I give President Reagan`s Star Wars a better chance of succeeding.”
Rifkin is not a scientist but has written 12 books on science and philosophy, including ”Entropy.” Rifkin`s life has been spent advocating that a dimension of ethics be added to science and technology, a dimension he says is now missing. Among other things, his organization, Foundation on Economic Trends, has been in the forefront of efforts to keep scientists from introducing genetically engineered organisms into the environment because he doesn`t think they realize what all the consequences might be. Rifkin agrees with Allen that life on Earth is a single organism but faults Allen for the claim that the organism somehow has a will to colonize other planets. ”I think there`s a tremendous amount of hubris here, that we have something valuable to transfer to the rest of the universe,” Rifkin says. ”If there`s a sentient consciousness out there, I would think that it`s quaking in its boots at the prospect; we`ve done so poorly here.
”It`s an escapist attitude,” Rifkin continues. ”It`s almost like the throwaway mentality. The Earth is seen as a stopover. The money would be better spent on a massive project to heal our own planet instead of talking about colonizing other planets. We`re not prepared to talk about journeying to other planets.”
Many others, however, among them Bredt and Schweickart, worry that the U.S. government is lagging far behind the Soviets on planning a manned mission to Mars and developing accompanying technology. Reports are that the USSR, which has strongly proclaimed its goal of sending a manned flight to Mars by 1992, has developed the rudiments of a self-sustaining system called ”Bios.” ”They`re ahead of us,” says Bredt. ”They`ve had a slow-paced but persistant program going since the middle 1960s.” So far, Bredt says, the longest that anyone has stayed continuously inside the Bios system has been five months, and although researchers are given some food when they go in, 80 percent of their sustenance is raised inside–wheat, herbs, kohlrabi, peas and other vegetables–and air and water are successfully recycled.
SunSpace Ranch, site of the Biosphere project high in the Santa Clara mountains, overlooks the scenic, remote and rocky Canyon del Oro valley an hour`s drive from the Sun Belt sprawl of Tucson. The valley is carpeted with a variety of cactus: saguaro, prickly pear, cholla and barrel. Deer, coyote, javalina (wild pig) and a myriad of birds wander the desert.
Next to the hillside where Biosphere II is being built is the futuristic- looking tissue-culture laboratory where scientists are researching plant-cloning techniques. Beyond that structure, in a little draw, is a collection of different facilities: a 12,500-cubic-foot biosphere test module, where different aspects of the full-scale model are being tested, and a warm and moist 17,000-square-foot greenhouse, where SBV is experimenting with different agricultural techniques.
The air is filled with the noise of construction, and hard- hatted workmen carry large pieces of metal for several tall new greenhouses that will be used to store the canopy trees as they come in from rain forests and deserts around the world. A quarantine greenhouse is under construction, to make sure plants are disease-free before they are placed with the others. Workmen are also repairing a 5,000-cubic-foot bellows off the side of the Biosphere test module. To keep the air inside the test module from bursting the glazing as it expands under the hot desert sun, it is drawn off through a tube into a large balloon in a separate structure. As the air cools off and contracts in the evening, it is allowed to flow back into the test module.
When completed, Biosphere II–occupying 2 1/2 acres, or 98,000 square feet, and displacing 5 million cubic feet–will contain seven different biomes. It will be entirely enclosed in glass, except for the 4-story white-domed human habitat. The glass panes will be set in a metal frame and fastened to a skeletal framework of plastic-coated hollow steel tubes called a space frame. The floor of the structure will be made of an impermeable material, perhaps stainless steel or fiberglass; as a closed system, it`s critical that the biosphere be tightly sealed against the outside environment. The goal is to give Biosphere II a lifespan of at least 100 years. Deadline for completion is 1989, and by 1992 SBV plans to have the capacity to produce and market bio-
spheric systems.
Because it would be difficult to keep temperate biomes cool, the Biosphere will contain only tropical biomes. At the west–and tallest–end of the Biosphere will be a tropical rain forest, which includes a 50-foot-high mountain and a small lagoon. The ceiling here will be about 80 feet high, the floor area about 20,000 square feet. Banana trees will be grown here, along with a variety of canopy trees and as many plant species as possible with medicinal attributes. Ghillean Prance, who works for the New York Botanical Garden Institute of Economic Botany and is considered one of the world`s foremost authorities on tropical rain forests, is designing this biome.
Water from the rain forest will collect first into a small lagoon and then run as a small stream through a tropical savannah, a region characterized by grasses and small shrubs. From there it will meander through a fresh-water marsh, oxbow through a salt-water marsh and then empty into a salt-water ocean, which will include a living coral reef. Beyond the marshes will be a small thorn-scrub environment, and next and last in line will be the desert biome.
Burgess is designing the desert biome and is also a consultant on the thorn-scrub and savannah sections. Burgess has worked for Allen before and is the architect of the desert dome that sits atop the Caravan of Dreams in downtown Ft. Worth. A stocky man with red hair and a bushy red beard, the botanist talks with fervor about his desert biome and this once-in-a-lifetime scientific opportunity.
