BIOS-3

The day designated as biosphere experiment 3 was a closed ecosystem at the Institute of Biophysics in Krasnoyarsk - was operated on behalf of the Soviet government - Siberia.

The purpose of the biosphere 3 was devoted to the exploration of a closed ecosystem. The Soviet government wanted to find a way to let people outside the earth survive indefinitely.

The construction of the biosphere 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. For comparison, the biosphere 2 encloses a volume of 204,000 cubic meters.

To maintain the oxygen content of the air and filter out the carbon dioxide, Chlorella algae are used. In order to produce the oxygen that a person needs to breathe, eight -square were used to chlorella algae if additional filters were installed.

A total of ten experiments, each from one to three people were performed. In the longest experiment, it considers that the three crew members from 180. They were dependent on the grown plants within the system in terms of food supply. Although the system worked in principle, to effects that have been attributed to an interaction between algae and higher plants showed. Due to this some of the foreseen as food plants were killed.

By 1984, new trials were started over again. The plants are still standing but (after 2004) for experiments open.

Although the system is built and operated long before the Biosphere 2 project, it is now known under the name Biosphere 3. The reason is that the project was only subsequently that name, so that the chronology of the numbering is a bit confusing.

Compared to project Biosphere 2, the Soviet experiments provide a more on practicality in terms of space - long-haul flights aligned dar. This was an attempt to develop the smallest possible space, a largely self-sufficient system, while Biosphere 2 with its rich flora and fauna in a significantly larger structure can be seen more as a replica of a comprehensive environment.