David Wichner University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2 has been the site for research on ecological systems and human habitation since it was built in the late 1980s.
SolarSpace, a Tucson-based startup using licensed UA solar technology for off-grid applications including electric vehicle charging stations The Biosphere 2 outpost is the fourth for UACI, a UA-sponsored business incubator that has significantly expanded its scope and footprint in the past few years. While the startups at Biosphere 2 are using the site’s unique assets to further their technologies, the new UACI center there — built in a space partway up the Biosphere 2’s distinctive geodesic-dome-topped tower in a space once used as a press room for visiting journalists — gives them desk space to conduct business while interacting with fellow UACI startups.
Meanwhile, since last year, Over the Sun has been converting an on-site Biosphere 2 prototype used for small-scale testing before the main buildings were constructed into a simulated human habitat for the moon or Mars.Over the SunFounded by Kai Staats, a Benson-based researcher, filmmaker and entrepreneur, Over the Sun LLC has produced science documentary films and has developed a computational model and educational interface to study the challenges of off-world, human habitation.
Once the habitat is finished by early next year, the plan is to bring teams of students or researchers in for stays ranging from a few days to a few months, said Staats, who received an undergrad degree in industrial design from Arizona State University in 1993 and a master’s in machine learning from the University of Capetown, South Africa.
Staats said he came Biosphere 2 to add his own research to that dataset and fell in love with the campus. The test module that Over the Sun is adapting for its habitat was originally built in 1987 as the second prototype for Biosphere 2. He bought a system for the St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery in Florence and later founded SolarSpace to acquire the assets of Angel’s company and is initially marketing the technology to power stand-alone EV chargers in off-grid areas.
In 2019, Red Sea Farms secured a $1.9 million co-investment from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Innovation Fund and Research Products Development Company and is using it to build a 2,000-square-meter pilot saltwater greenhouse on the university campus in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. “We hope to demonstrate the game-changing nature of our technologies in cooperation with Biosphere 2 and the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center at UA, to enable sustainable and productive agriculture in water-scarce and harsh climates, leading to rapid company growth and adoption of our technologies on a large scale both in the USA and globally,” Lefers said in an email.
The Solar River project is a new venture for Tectonicus, which has been providing architectural and design services with a focus on sustainability since 2012.