Notes from the tour
"Under the Glass"
April 12, 2000
Cris Fitch

Tour guide: Greg Avila
Begun by John Allen.
Looking at the world beyond our planetary atmosphere
Create a closed system, recycling the air and water.
Try to balance the O2, fresh water.
Drinking toilet water.
Photosynthesis okay.
Got down to 14.5% O2 during the 2 year sealed mission.
Columbia University got involved.
Wally Broker, La Mont D'Aurity.
Ecolab and Earth system study.
Biomes, diversity.
Manipulate variables.
CO2 in our planet's atmosphere.
Crystal ball on changes to our larger biosphere.

Funded by billionaire Ed Bass.
Columbia's conditions for taking over management.
Nobody is to live inside.
Opened up the living quarters to the public.
Had to put a new door in.
Don't need that section now.
Lock down CO2 study in part of the complex.
Rest is in flow-through mode.
Not into atmospheric studies as much.
More people involved.
It had been very secretive.
Nobody had put the people together.
Only 3 months between end of construction and experiment.
Tropical orchard.
Bananas were most productive.
The bionauts got kind of tired of them.
Half acre farm - too intense.
Now a forestry project.
Constant window washing.
External power plant.
Gas turbines, cooling towers.
Big heating and cooling issues to solve.
Air handlers.
Different temperature water.
Grates and coils.
Vent air across coils, producing hot water.
Closed loop.  Ceramic baffles.
40 deg - 100 deg.
Lines direct to power.
Ammonia chillers and boilers.
The two large white geodesics domes are the lungs.
Expansion and contraction - synthetic rubber diaphram.
Giant balloons.
Counter weight to maintain pressure.
Could explode or implode if heated/cooled too fast.
4000 ft - 15 psi.
Maintain pressure slightly positive, to push air outward.
Three injection ports.  Different.
Rain forest 11-1200 ppm.
Altering the level of nutrients.
500 tons of stainless steel.
Make changes.
Lots of pipes.
26 chillers.
Lots of ants.
Pull air thru chillers.  Savanna temperatures.
Heat exchange, radiators.
Was the responsibility of the bionauts.
Simple but effective.
Machines, high voltage.

Notice ants and cockroaches on the floor.
12 species of ants were intentionally brought in.
This species was not - just hitched a ride in on something.
Arizona greenhouse ant.
Killed off all the other species.
They share queens, and have no colony.

Coral Reef.
Don't filter this "ocean".
Bicarbonate.
Added level of CO2 has squeezed out carbonate for coral.
Seeing how it plays out.
Research posted on the website.
Big rock wall.
Vacuum trough.
Up to 3ft wave.
Oxygenates the wave.
Algae scrubbers to filter water.
Trays with water dump buckets for algae to accumulate.
Compost.
Natural growth far greater than natural decay.

ADA (Agriculture dept) considers this a quarantine area.

No carnivores.
Reef fish.
Not much to eat.
(temperature shift as we move from one section to another)
Wilderness RO storage tank
60 deg - 70 deg desert.
Rainy season.
Watch the flow of water.
Wilderness water.
250k gal reservoir.
Desert sub-soil collection.
Condensation.  Condensate tray.
Designed to be the potable water.
UV disinfecting light.
Water was something they never had a lack of.
Didn't come near to using as much as they had.
Get out some of the contaminants.
Control room in the science center.
They can make it rain in the rainforest.
Happens on queue.
Waste water from the restroom.
Grey water.
Used as irrigation water.

(Down the tunnel/pipe to the lung)
Basically an oil tank.
Expanding and contracting.
Air lock open in flow-through mode.
Put extensions to hold up the rubber balloon so we
can see under it.
If closed, the lung goes up and down.
Synthetic rubber diaphram.
Dish in center.  Would pick this up.
Would raise it up to 50 ft high.
26 ton weight.
Quite amazing to see it go up.
50 ft chain.
Would vent at some point.
Never seen it go up that high, though.

250k gal reservoir here, as well.
Gravity fed.
Pumped back up.
Primary storage.
Acting as a settling tank.
Eventually it would build up.
9 years, same volume.
Began on Sept. 26, 1991.
25 ft deep.
30 ft drop diving.
Little beach, Savanna, view.

190 total staff.
750k gallon reef.
Costal fog desert.
Transition area - thorn scrub.
Buffering of extremes.
Rosy periwinkle fruit.
1% in rain forest species plants.

10 apartments.
Dr. Roy Walford.
Menu: beans, rice, wheat, sorghum, sweet potatoes,
beets, peanuts, bananas, papayas.

Green house gasses: CO2, CH4 (methane), N2O, Fluorocarbons.
Catalina Mountains.
Cafe Visionaire.
175' x 111'
Intensive Agriculture Biome
Monitor 12 atmospheric gasses.

West	33.7	1194
Center	62.1	773
East	48.7	475
RF	87.3	392
	(rH%)	CO2, ppm

Coral presentation
Marlin Atkinson
Heidi Barnett of BS2.
corals bleach from loss of algae.
More CO2 in water, lowers CO3 carbonate.
Coral reefs support 25% of all marine species.
Only 800,000 sq miles.