Of Bannon, and Biospheres and Barking Arks....
FWIW, John Allen, as the creative force behind Biosphere II founded
Synergia Ranch just outside Santa Fe in 1969 as part of a
counter-culture movement. A satellite version was established outside
Oracle AZ soon after which became the site and precursor to Biosphere
II. I believe Allen may still reside at Synergia-NM with some other
"elders" of the movement over the years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Allen
as a young(er) man even he was a significant part of:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_of_All_Possibilities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Ecotechnics
I think it was discussed here the film Spaceship_Earth_(film)
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceship_Earth_(film)> when it came out
in 2020 on all things related and I also think Stephen G. visited
Synergia about that time? Has a contact there?
For more background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2... for
morbid entertainment, note that *Steve Bannon* (yes that one) was
instrumental in the second attempt (and rapid crash) made there to force
the concept to work in spite of itself.
<RambleTangent>
The 60's EcoTechnics institute's flagship project was the handbuilt
research vessel Heraclitus which has sailed every ocean (except artic)
and visited every continent (including Antarctic).
https://www.factum-arte.com/pag/643/rebuilding-the-heraclitus-vessel
with ocean going vessels something of a "biosphere" excepting the air
you breathe and the fish you might catch being the main inputs. maybe
rainwater caught or saltwater distilled, some solar/wind/water energy
captured.
<RambleTangent#2>
I only know (some) of this because of the "friends of SFx" colleagues in
Wales Matt and Janire did a big project to document a contemporary
project "early in its voyages" called the Arka Kinari... A bit more
arts/social, less research but "of the spirit". They were in the middle
of the Pacific when COVID hit and had to play self-sufficient for months
until they could find a moorage that would allow them in. They were
(mostly) prepared.
https://openexhibits.org/exhibit-design/ghosts-in-armour-at-santa-fe-complex/4863/
https://www.cultvr.cymru/events/the-voyage-of-arka-kinari-documentary-film-2/
Matt and Janire are the heavy lifters onn the project to convert 1 of 4
theaters in Los Alamos to an Immersive Space. Guerin and I are
involved in various capacities... this is a redux of the project I left
LANL 16 years ago (building an immersive theater/facility in the
community outside the fence) which failed for non-technical reasons.
I'd be the heavy lifter myself if I could lift anything heavy....
buh! But it is good to watch it (finally) bear fruit or blossom or
whatever the metaphor is...
https://sala.losalamos.com/phase2/
will the free associative rambling never stop? </RambleStop>
On 3/1/24 12:46 PM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
Interesting points. Life in Antartica and on the ISS is only possible
because of continuous supplies from the outside. Biosphere 2 showed
all the problems that arise for example on Moon or Mars if there are
no such supplies: lack of oxygen, lack of food and lack of clean water
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/13/spaceship-earth-arizona-biosphere-2-lockdown
Robots on the other hand have no problems surviving on Mars:
Curiosity, Spirit, Perseverance, ... have proven they can survive in
harsh and hostile conditions. Maybe we are like fish 400 million years
ago wondering if life outside the ocean is possible. The answer would
have been yes, but not for fish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_rover
-J.
-------- Original message --------
From: Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com>
Date: 3/1/24 7:26 PM (GMT+01:00)
To: friam@redfish.com
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Biospheres
Thanks for this prompt. I recently tripped over:
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/martians-wanted-nasa-opens-call-for-simulated-yearlong-mars-mission/
and was reminded of my maunderings when Musk first stated his
aspirations for Mars colonization acutely or eloquently enough to
convince me he was serious, not just attention-seeking.
1. Antartica has been continuously "colonized" for about 100 years,
but by various international scientific researchers at extremely
well funded (per capita) habitats. The conditions there (for the
most part) are *much* more welcome to human life and definitely
easier to supply.
2. Seafloor habitats (these were a rage to consider in the 50s and
60s, but have lost popularity) seem at least as welcoming as
Antartica and (for the most part) nicely buffered from wild
climactic and weather shifts? Also easier to resupply from
"topside"? I don't know how deep you have to go to get the
"buffering" I mentioned, but certainly not Titanic explorer
implosion depths. Kurzweil recently claimed a synthetic
"hemoglobin" replacement/supplement (suggested dosage == 50/50 mix
with natural) which would gift the average human something like 6
hours without breathing? Add oxy/rebreather tech and you have
homo aquatic methinks? Don't know about pressure... scuba
wonks anyone?
3. Asteroid belting seems to make much more sense for gravitational
and resource acquisition reasons? Lots of basic needs available
"somewhere" in the same gravity well
(Ice/Oxygen-compounds/metals?). If you gotta live indoors most of
the time, why not orbiting in a resource rich environment where
you never have to dig too deep for molecular resource stock and
all travel is frictionless and low-gravity-gradient? Atmosphere
is good for cosmic shielding but not as good as planetary magnetic
field?
4. Biosphere/II were part of a big movement as I came of age and
lived within 100-200 miles of the project at the time... It looked
like a folly and rich-person's conceit at the time... little did I
know what would follow!
5. Various ideas around Arcologies, starting with the (also Arizona
Desert) Arcosanti (Paolo Soleri) and made totally over the top
(the Saudis' Line City of Noem) have intrigued me, and since any
moon/mars/europa colony we try to build will be much more
resource-demanding and personally and external-supply restricted,
I feel like at-worst we should be exploring those concepts while
Musk tries to fling a million people to Mars (many of them is
direct descendents? Maybe a a few thousand vials of his frozen
sperm or with the Alabama nonsense, a few thousand IVF embryos of
his parentage (and gawdess knows whose ova?) for genetic diversity?
It all (Mars/Moon/Asteroid Belt colonization) strikes me as being
fueled by too much the GOFF (good old fashioned futurism) too many of
us boomers and some GenX were raised on.
If Musk thinks the "woke mind virus" is the earth's (or humanity's)
biggest threat, I don't know how he thinks colonizing Mars will
help. Some strange resonance with the aspirations of the break-away
European Colonies of the Age of Exploration? How much of the Americas
was colonized with this desire to leave the "old country" baggage
behind, only to repeat the same mistakes or trip over the
Utopia/Dystopia duality? And then we have to (almost exclusively
failed, and usually catastrophically) cults and communes of the
current era.
I avoided reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars series
for the longest time, not being a big fan of Space Opera, but when he
hooked me on his climate disaster novels (Washington DC, California
settings, then his magnum opus a few years ago Ministry for the
Future) I went ahead and let him update me on the Barsoomian conceits
I was raised on as a pre-teen. His Terraforming Mars
(red/green/blue Mars) stuff was pretty good with lots of tech
exploration of just how do you survive on mars-as-it-is then get
enough water to the surface to start greening up some parts, then yet
enough more water to start having surface water. I forget the tech
details now, but suffice it to say I was mildly convinced he had
researched the basic physics and ideated honestly on the engineering
challenges. Of course the social/economic/political implications
interested me more. He played around in that space well.
I'm not convinced we have any business colonizing Mars (or any Solar
planetary body really) soon. Seems like we have an excellent
Goldilocks Zone planet whose nurturance (or at least our multi-billion
year evolution/adaption/co-evolution to/with it) is a fine fit if we
could just "cool our jets" (literally and figuratively) enough to keep
the keep the oscillations we are driving into it's medium term
(centuries?) stability so thoughtlessly. Drill Baby Drill!
I just started watching the series "the Expanse" which as best I can
tell is constrained to the general range I've described of
Earth/Mars/Belt... it seems pretty long on tech and special effects
and flashy weapons and space-collisions and bad blood/intentions, and
really weak on any deference to the realities of orbital mechanics and
semi-absurdity of the implied economics (measured in delta-V?) but I
am doing this to be conversant with a good friend. What we both
agreed on was that by the time our tech/energetics support that kind
of free-ranging through the middle of the solar system, genetic
engineering and cybernetic tech, you would at least expect the humans
going about all this spacefaring to be *tiny*, maybe giant brains with
minimal bodies and probably reverting to grasping feet/toes and maybe
throw (back) in an articulating tail for balance in 0G and an extra
gripper/poker? A 30lb human with a 2-3lb brain is a lot more
obvious than the 150-300 lb'rs shown on the show. The metabolic
needs just don't make sense? replace a bunch of the
muscle/bone/pumps/fluids of a human body with cyber versions and the
"engineering" support/maintenance/repair becomes more suitable to the
environment. Maybe the brain/mind/spirit upload business will come
about eventually, then the burden of the human-on-board become even
more well aligned with other systems? Or maybe we go the other way
and engineer our bodies to become the space-ships... let organic
chemistries and biomechanics and biomaterials do all the work of
radiation shielding, vacuum resisting, thermal management, etc.
might be a bit much to do
ion-thrusters/chemical-rockets/nuclear-rockets with bio-materials?
Light Sails! Nicholas van Rjin/ Falkayne anyone? James Blish? Ian
Banks?
Mumble,
-S
On 3/1/24 10:04 AM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
Corentin de Chatelperron and Caroline Pultz tried to live for 120
days in the Mexican desert self sufficiently, growing their own food.
Using their own desalination machines they generated fresh water for
the plants and themselves
https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/110239-000-A/the-biosphere-experiment/
Biosphere 2 near Tuscon was a similar, even more extreme experiment
to create a self-sustaining ecosystem. The experiment was considered
a failure and the whole center belongs now to the University of Arizona.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2
Both experiments showed how difficult it is to support human life in
a closed, self-sustaining environment. Do you think self-sustained
life on Moon or Mars is possible? Or as the book "A City on Mars"
asks "Can we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really
thought this through?"
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/14/a-city-on-mars-by-kelly-and-zach-weinersmith-review-one-way-ticket-to-muskow-anyone
-J.
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