title: Living in space:  results from Biosphere 2's initial closure, an early testbed for closed ecological systems on Mars.
abstract: The following summary of results from the first 2-year closure experiment (September 26, 1991 to September 26, 1993) in Biosphere 2 is excerpted from a chapter written by William Dempster and myself for a book, Strategies for Mars, edited by Carol Stoker and Carter Emmart of NASA Ames Research Center.  The book will be published later this year by Krieger Publishers.  It brings together a number of the most striking initial results, including food production and nutrition; ecosystem changes; oxygen and carbon dioxide dynamics; and the human role and response to living in a small, recycling life support system.  The references cited are useful as a guide to currently available articles in journals.  Hopefully, the next year will see a proliferation of papers presenting more data from the first 2 years of Biosphere 2's operation.  There was a wealth of data collected during the closure and by teams of researchers who had access to the facility during the 5-month transition period following the departure of the first crew and the commencement of the second closure experiment in March, 1994.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Ecotechnics, London.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: W F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Dempster
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D001130:Arizona; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D018504:Ecological Systems, Closed; D017753:Ecosystem; D004779:Environment Design; D005260:Female; D005511:Food Handling; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D008021:Life Support Systems / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D018535:Mars; D008954:Models, Biological; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis; D012107:Research Design; D018561:Space Simulation
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D010100:Oxygen