Shame about the paywall.

> Stowaway Australian cockroaches covered the floors at night and destroyed everything they could get their mandibles on, including much of the salad crop and both of the kitchen’s microwave ovens (they ate the wiring). The broad mite, a pest that normally afflicts tea plants, broadened its horizons in this special setting and killed the entire potato crop. In the Ocean, the biospherians engaged in a battle of wits with stowaway octopi who had been accidentally introduced into the habitat and whose voracity was only eclipsed by their cunning. After the first few weeks they were never seen, but their depredations continued.

Sounds like they should have added insect farming to supplement their food supply. Most cockroaches are edible when cooked. Yeast or maybe some engineered creatures to produce whatever is needed might be interesting for a modern attempt.

Biosphere 2 one of their main problems is that growing food was labor intensive, as I've found with my own hydroponics experiments.

• asmodeuslucifer

  today at 5:37 PM

  I visited there and as others have pointed out, it's in a north-south running valley, so it loses an hour of sunlight in the morning and an hour of sunlight in the evening.

  I was enraptured by the project ever since I saw it in the late lamented Whole Earth Review. I was driving across country and made a detour to see it.

  I'm glad it was built and we learned a lot from it. I'm not a fan of billionaires but good on Ed Bass for financing it.

At least protein itself is a "solved problem".

There's a couple companies making protein from air and nutrients:

https://www.airprotein.com/ https://spacemilk.com/

And Air Protein claims they leveraged NASA's research into the problem so that's a nice payoff.

Algae cultivation would be valuable too:

Complete Protein: Packed with all nine essential amino acids (Spirulina and Chlorella are up to 70% protein by weight).Vegan

Omega-3s: The original marine source of essential EPA and DHA fatty acids, offering a pure alternative to fish oil.

Gut Health & Fiber: Rich in unique prebiotic fibers (like alginate and fucoidan) that feed healthy gut bacteria.

Vitamins & Minerals: High in essential nutrients, including iron, calcium, magnesium, and hard-to-find vitamin B12.

Powerful Antioxidants: Contains protective plant pigments like astaxanthin and beta-carotene for immune and skin health.

Natural Food Additives: Provides functional ingredients like agar and carrageenan used to thicken and stabilize foods naturally.

I'm sure there's other "food from a vat" options that could be baselines, and then augmented by real plant food.

In the interest of efficiency they'd be best served by having a predominantly vegan diet but I imaging that they could have more efficient producers added in, like chicken and fish.

Warning: paywallus interruptus.

Kicks in just after it starts to get interesting.

• mikestew

  today at 4:37 PM

  Works on my machine, latest macOS/Safari behind a Pi-hole if that makes any difference.

  • vlian2088

    today at 4:41 PM

    you didn't scroll far enough

    • today at 5:09 PM