Botanist Linda Leigh, who has spent the last three weeks literally in her element, called her stay in an experimental biosphere a success Wednesday but said she's ready to return to Earth. When Ms. Leigh exits Thanksgiving afternoon from 21 days inside an airtight, 17,000-cubic foot glass-and-steel structure, she will have been the longest inhabitant of a completely enclosed ecosystem, with air and water generated and recycled independently of Earth's. ``I'll be emerging tomorrow at 2 p.m. as scheduled, and everything is rolling,'' she said. Ms. Leigh has been living inside a test module for Biosphere II, a $30 million project under construction. Scientists plan to place four men and four women inside a much larger sealed structure for two years to determine whether humans can duplicate Earth's life systems for possible use in space. ``The one thing that I really do miss is just companionship,'' Ms. Leigh said Wednesday in a telephone interview from within the module, located on a ranch about 30 miles north of Tucson. ``I don't think that it's a matter of feeling lonely, but there's just something about direct human contact and sitting with somebody and pouring them a cup of tea or a cup of coffee and having that morning discussion; it's very different than doing it over the phone or over the video,'' she said. ``Other than that, I'm quite content on the inside. I feel like I could stay in here indefinitely.'' Since entering the module Nov. 2, Ms. Leigh has been in frequent daily contact with her outside support team by telephone, video conference, two-way radio and just looking through the glass windows. Three daily medical checks, including pulse at rest and after exercise, blood pressure, pulmonary function, blood oxygen saturation and urine tests, have shown her health is ``unbelievably positive. The physicians on the outside can't believe it,'' she said. Two people also check her psychologically each day, Ms. Leigh said, ``just to make sure that my state of mind or humor is normal.'' Ms. Leigh baked herself a 39th birthday cake on Nov. 12 of sorghum, rice flour and sweet potatoes harvested from her mini-field. Her colleagues serenaded her with ``Happy Birthday'' by video and directed her to gifts hidden in her living area. Other crops have ranged from jalapeno peppers to kohlrabi. Lemon grass, mint, tarragon and fennel are among the herbs she has used to season her meals and make tea. She also has a tank of talapia fish. ``I had talapia Vera Cruzana the other night,'' she said. Water for drinking, cooking and showering is dehumidified from the air. Samples are passed through a special port for outside analysis, along with samples of waste water and her urine. The rest of the waste water is fed into a marsh recycling system. The botanist also has had to be a mechanic and technician, repairing the loose belt of a large fan that heats and cools the module, and fine-tuning the irrigation system. Ms. Leigh said she hasn't felt isolated because her support team is excellent. In fact, she occasionally has had to pull the curtains in her living area to get away from the observing eyes outside. Either that, ``or I go out into what we call `the wilderness' and just stay out within the plants.''
Botanist Linda Leigh will exit Thanksgiving afternoon from 21 days inside an airtight, 17,000 cubic foot glass and steel structure, a test module for Biosphere II, a $30 million project under construction. Eight people will be placed inside a much larger sealed structure for two years to determine whether humans can duplicate Earth's life systems for possible use in space. She says the only thing she misses is companionship, but she is otherwise content being in frequent contact with the outside support team by telephone, video, radio, and just looking through the glass window. Daily medical checks have shown her health is unbelievably positive.