The Biosphere experiments conducted in the US some years back were essentially in preparation for extended group-living in space, on other planets. A crew of volunteers entered into and lived together isolated from everything in an artificially cocooned environment, with its own internal ecosystem which mimicked an average Earth ambience. They grew their own food, recycled human waste, generated power and synthetically replenished air’s oxygen content. They came out after a year. The next step is to do it for generations at a time. That would require doming up a piece of uninhabited territory and reproducing inside it the conditions existing on, say, Mars. Decrease atmospheric pressure, replace it largely with CO2, change the soil to red rock and sand, and pump in a very minimal amount of hidden groundwater in the form of permafrost. Also, annihilate all traces of life, fungal, bacterial, even...
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