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Science and Education in Biodomes
Guinnessy writes: "Many of you will remember the excitement around biosphere 2, a project to enclose 8 people in a sealed environment to see if they could survive a year on just the resources produced inside the dome. It failed (although they did discover some interesting data from it). Now, in the UK, a bunch of scientists, engineers and environments have created the Eden Project, a similar scheme (e.g. closed environments mimicking various climate conditions around the world) to biosphere 2 except the general public can walk through the domes to learn about the importance of plant life. Wired News magazine has an excellent article explaining some of the technology used in its construction (it amazed me how far they have come compared to the biosphere 2 design) and how it is educating the public." Hey, according to Mission to Mars all you need is some flapping canvas to keep your habitat secure.
I think this is a brilliant thing to be doing. If you read the article there have already been a bunch of technical spinoffs from this project (soil technology, building big light things etc) that will make a big difference in the 'real world'.
And there's loads of plants in it! Speaking as a keen gardener ( how many of us on Slashdot, I wonder?) I can't wait to wander around it and go 'wow!'
This is a great example of what really rich people can get done if they have some style. Kudos to Tim Smits.
I think the only downside on the eden project is its location - Cornwall. You're looking at a good 3-4 hours from London to get there. That said, if you're in London, you can always make a weekend of it, see the Eden project one day, say Dartmoor the other.
One of the very cool things about it was that its built in an old mine. They started off with this slightly polluted hole in the ground, created their own soil on site from the mineing slag. Now if only we could be doing similar regenerative projects for all our mine sites...
This post will enter the public domain 70 years after my death, unless Disney buys another extension.
They made a good try at it, and if they ever activate this eden project it would be nice to see if their's works. But biosphere was doomed from the start and many many scientists were saying so from the beginning. They were lacking a correct sized human waste processing system, the amount of fauna was way too low, and trying to create ALL ecosuystems was plain stupid. Pick a easy to care for system and use that. using all high growth rate plants and high nutn plants is the best route plus you need to take account for the fact that plants will consume Oxygen in the night phase.
Even when Biosphere was being built it didnt seem that they were even trying to build it right and that it was more of a publicity stunt instead of a real research project.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Does that mean the environment was closed after an initial air-supply in order to let its contents re-generate its required oxygen itself ?
If this were the case this would be quite exciting as by just carrying this "life-bubble" on other world we could settle there with the minimum needed.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Ahh, the Eden project is about 1 mile from where I grew up in Cornwall, and where my parents still live. It is an awesome project for the millennium and it was great to see it being built. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to go back there since it was completed.
One great thing about the project, is the interest and tourism that it's bringing to the local area - Cornwall has always been a beautiful place for people to visit, but now there's another reason to go as well.
This is an excellent use of one of the open-cast pits left over from the china clay mines that are scattered around that region of Cornwall, taking what was an eyesore and turning it into a thing of beauty. The Eden project is everything the Dome should have been in London.
If ever you're in the area, make a special effort to go and visit the project - it's really something special that you can't see anywhere else - not really anything like the Biosphere2 project - they're entirely different things, with entirely different objectives, on entirely different continents!
-- Pete.
Monochrome - Probably the UK's largest internet BBS
I wonder what the viability of this kind of technology would be for recreating certain desirable regions of the world. Take, for example, prime grape growing regions in France, California, etc that produce award winning wines. Why couldn't a company design an enclosure that reproduces those conditions in, say, Nebraska where land is cheap and produce comparable crops? Would the cost of construction and continued environmental regulation outweigh any benefits?
-- "Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"
"It has been suggested the the construction techniques could be used to construct a biosphere type enclosure in space because of it's light weight construction techniques, "
Light weight is nice, but secondary. The primary function of any has to be to remain sealed at 14.7 Psi internal pressure. If it can't do that, then any suggestion to use it is laughable. Basically, there is no air in space, and any space traveller will need about 1 atmosphere of pressure to survive. Next it will have to shield them from radiation and thermally insulate them (the temperature extremes on somewhere like the moon are insane because it doesn't have an atmosphere to even them out). Light weight is a distant third on concerns (although cost of construction is a barrier, and weight effects that, doing it safely is far more important).
BlackGriffen
This is wrong. The Eden project is great, but it's not a closed system (it's not trying to be). The domes have heating, irrigation, etc.
They're just large, interestingly-built greenhouses. They've also been around for a couple of years - this story is quite out of date.
Worth a visit though, if you're in Devon or Cornwall. The project gets very busy though, avoid bank holiday w/ends at all costs.
andy.
There are 536 tonnes of air in both the Biomes
volume inside HT Biome; 330,110m3
volume inside WT Biome; 85,620m3
Density of air = 1.225 Kg/m3 (at 15 deg C) - though this gives a mass of 509 tonnes.
Either way the air does not quite weigh as much as the steel but its close.
The Millennium Dome is a suspension type construction which is generally very light so I would guess that the air inside it weighs a lot less than the structure.
wot no sig
personal attacks hurt, especially when deserved