BIOS-3
BIOS-3 (in Cyrillic БИОС-3 ) was an experimental closed ecosystem project operated by the Institute of Biophysics in Krasnoyarsk - Siberia - on behalf of the Soviet government.
aims
The purpose of BIOS-3 was to explore an enclosed ecosystem. The Soviet government wanted to find a way to let people outside of the earth survive indefinitely. There were two previous projects, BIOS-1 (1965) and BIOS-2 (1968).
The construction of BIOS-3 lasted from 1965 to 1972. The finished building had a volume of about 315 cubic meters and was designed for a maximum of three people.
Chlorella algae were used to maintain the oxygen content of the air and to filter out the carbon dioxide . To produce the oxygen a person needs to breathe, eight square meters of chlorella algae were needed if additional filters were installed.
A total of ten experiments were carried out with one to three people each. In the longest experiment, three people lived in BIOS-2 for 180 days from the plants growing in the system. Although the system worked in principle, it showed negative effects that were attributed to an interaction between algae and the higher plants. This killed some of the plants intended for use as food.
Up to 1984 new test series were started again and again. The facilities are (as of 2004) still open for experiments.
Compared to Biosphere 2
Compared to the Biosphere 2 project , which was realized in 1991 in the USA and was much larger with 204,000 cubic meters of enclosed space , the Soviet experiments were more geared towards practicality with regard to long-haul space flights. An attempt was made to develop a largely self-sufficient system in the smallest possible space, while Biosphere 2 with its rich flora and fauna in a much larger structure can be seen more as a replica of a comprehensive environment.