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I visited this and thought it was very cool. A few random comments: - It’s underlaid by a dense sprawl of machinery the size of a football field, which is cons

I visited this and thought it was very cool. A few random comments: - It’s underlaid by a dense sprawl of machinery the size of a football field, which is constantly working to create and maintain the above biomes. - The “lungs” are auditorium-sized rooms with a ceiling that’s free to rise and fall as air pressure changes due to temperature, reducing stress on the structure. You can walk up inside it, with air rushing past you in the connecting tunnel. - There’s a library at the top of a short tower, maybe two stories. We were told the crew didn’t use it because food and oxygen deprivation kept them too weak to climb the stairs. - Golf cart sized air vents create what really gets subconsciously recognized as natural wind, not artificial blowing. It was so pleasant that I’ve become determined to replicate it in my home someday. - There wasn’t a predecessor, “biosphere 1” refers to Earth.

wongarsu 3y ago
> Golf cart sized air vents create what really gets subconsciously recognized as natural wind, not artificial blowing. It was so pleasant that I’ve become determined to replicate it in my home someday. Maybe a ceiling fan is a good starting point. A 4 foot fan at low speeds generates something approximating wind, and in principle you can mount it on a wall instead of a ceiling to get a more natural wind direction. At higher speed you'd probably have to mount it in front of an opening of similar size as the blades to get wind instead of turbulent vortices though.
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  Or these vertical ceiling fans: https://www.lostcanyonwoodworks.com/x/cdn/?https://storage.googleapis.com/production-homestead-v1-0-3/873/727873/oWUXCDZ3/b3a947726ac645678b3c8d47c4bda279 https://www.lostcanyonwoodworks.com/x/cdn/?https://storage.g...
TheBlight 3y ago
It also feels very 1980s inside.
dehrmann 3y ago
> food and oxygen deprivation kept them too weak to climb the stairs Clearly that means it's time to declare the experiment over, right?
- aaron695 3y ago
  [dead]
Grimburger 3y ago
> We were told the crew didn’t use it because food and oxygen deprivation kept them too weak to climb the stairs. Perhaps only in the first experiment? > The second closure experiment achieved total food sufficiency and did not require injection of oxygen.
AtlasBarfed 3y ago
I wonder what solar cells were used in the project, and if modern advancements in solar power would change how systems were engineered. Battery technologies have improved as well. I think this is a critical experiment, and there shouldn't be one. There is a nonzero chance, increasing every day, that these technologies will be needed ON EARTH from collapsing ecosystems and extinction-depleted biological interaction graphs.

wongarsu 3y ago

> Golf cart sized air vents create what really gets subconsciously recognized as natural wind, not artificial blowing. It was so pleasant that I’ve become determined to replicate it in my home someday. Maybe a ceiling fan is a good starting point. A 4 foot fan at low speeds generates something approximating wind, and in principle you can mount it on a wall instead of a ceiling to get a more natural wind direction. At higher speed you'd probably have to mount it in front of an opening of similar size as the blades to get wind instead of turbulent vortices though.

JKCalhoun 3y ago
Or these vertical ceiling fans: https://www.lostcanyonwoodworks.com/x/cdn/?https://storage.googleapis.com/production-homestead-v1-0-3/873/727873/oWUXCDZ3/b3a947726ac645678b3c8d47c4bda279 https://www.lostcanyonwoodworks.com/x/cdn/?https://storage.g...

TheBlight 3y ago

It also feels very 1980s inside.

dehrmann 3y ago

> food and oxygen deprivation kept them too weak to climb the stairs Clearly that means it's time to declare the experiment over, right?

aaron695 3y ago
[dead]

Grimburger 3y ago

> We were told the crew didn’t use it because food and oxygen deprivation kept them too weak to climb the stairs. Perhaps only in the first experiment? > The second closure experiment achieved total food sufficiency and did not require injection of oxygen.

AtlasBarfed 3y ago

I wonder what solar cells were used in the project, and if modern advancements in solar power would change how systems were engineered. Battery technologies have improved as well. I think this is a critical experiment, and there shouldn't be one. There is a nonzero chance, increasing every day, that these technologies will be needed ON EARTH from collapsing ecosystems and extinction-depleted biological interaction graphs.