>> Rick, I think we have a long way to go before we can have habitable space environments that are also self-sufficient. Remember Biosphere 2?
I don't know much about it, but it seems to me that if there had been funding and time, the Biosphere project might have benefited from a more gradual scaling-up. I think they had one very small, brief "pilot plant" mission. Then they went directly to the large, multiple-biome dome. That seems very ambitious to me. Of course, as in any activity on that scale, funding probably controlled many decisions.
I was impressed that they got as close to stability as they did in just two missions: I would have guessed it would have taken a dozen attempts to find a mix of species and microclimates that was self-sufficent with such near-total closure.
Interesting that the "air-tight" closure revealed something as subtle as concrete absorbing CO2!
It surprised me that oxidation of soil carbon came as a surprise to them! I thought that was known for many decades to be a huge part of the carbon cycle. Maybe it was just overlooked in the huge volume of details.
>> Rick, I think we have a long way to go before we can have habitable space environments that are also self-sufficient.
Since I discoverd the O'Neil / L5 Society, I've thought that will only come about when there is a commerically profitable driver, and the path will be incremental. First a station that pays for itself with some zero-G products. Every pound of input or output they can spare bringing up from earth, reduces cost by about one pound of silver (that number is a few decades out of date). The immediate motivation to save money is likely to drive research into "tin can closure".
Gradually scaling up their recycling methods for larger habitats and making them more efficient will probably eventually force them to find biological solutions. The research they are forced to do will, I hope, then be applicable to cities and suburbs.
I may be cynical, but I think that more private funding will be found when there is money to be made and quarterly savings to demonstrate ... whereas not much funding or support is coming forth "merely" becuase we're making the planet uninhabitable in a few centuries or decades.
Until then, I think the Permaculture movement is like a grass-roots, unfunded, private research program that combines learning with living, as I imagine some day space habitats will combine learning with some industry so productive that it pays for the research.
