Construction began in 1987

In 1984, a scientific research company called Space Biospheres Ventures (SBV) bought land in Oracle, Arizona, in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, north of the city of Tucson. Over the next several years a number of ecological research facilities would be built on the site, including the most challenging and daring structure of them all, Biosphere 2. An enormous steel and glass greenhouse that reaches ninety-one feet at its highest point and covers an area the size of three football fields, Biosphere 2 was built to be a miniature replica of Earth. The purpose of studying Biosphere 2—complete with its own desert, rainforest, savannah, marsh, ocean, and plant and animal inhabitants—was to gain a better understanding of how the planet Earth and its life systems work. SBV hoped to use its findings to develop new recycling technologies that would help solve environmental problems...