Billionaire oil executive Edward Bass, who bankrolled much of the $150 million project, invoked the visions of Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Wright brothers. One crew member gushed about a future when humans will become "custodians of our world."; "Today we gather at a new instrument . . . to explore the mysteries of our very own home planet," Bass said, as the crew members, wearing futuristic black uniforms, fought to contain their emotions.; Crew member Abigail Alling, 31, her voice quavering, evoked the sometimes mystical bent of Biosphere 2's organizers: "By necessity, we biospherians walk in as custodians of our world and bring past and future together."; At 8:18 a.m., the four men and four women of the crew exchanged quick hugs and kisses with relatives and project officials, stepped through an air-lock door, waved through the round window, and disappeared inside the 3.15-acre geodesic-framed compound.; "I have had a vision that man could change from being a desert-maker into a builder of oases," crew member Mark Nelson said before stepping through the air lock.; Biosphere 2 consists of several climatic zones -- rain forest, savanna, ocean and marsh -- packed with 3,800 plant and animal species. It's all part of a test of space-colonization technology with the dream of someday locating such a complex on Mars.; The ultra-modern complex includes such luxury items as computers, facsimile machines, telephones, televisions, videocassette recorders and exercise equipment. The communications apparatus will tie the crew into a control center located a few hundred yards away, and to the rest of the world.; Critics say the project has little scientific merit. It has forged ahead despite doubts over its authenticity, charges of cultism and the loss of several of its prominent consultants.; "The guise of science has fallen over time," said Yvonne Clearwater, an environmental psychologist at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field. "It's really turning out to be a tourist attraction."; Space Biospheres Ventures, developer of the private, for-profit project, expects to draw up to a million visitors annually and has applied for some 50 design patents.; "Fundamentally, we are a business," Bass said. "Our first name 'Space' draws upon the most dramatic applications for the technologies we are developing."; The crew members, ranging in age from 27 to 67, will raise their own food and recycle all air, water and wastes. Wednesday they celebrated a final day of freedom with diversity by attending an ecological seminar, a laser show, a cocktail party and a press conference.; The 45-minute closing ceremony after dawn today included prayers from a Tibetan monk and a sun dance by Dan Old Elk, a Sioux from Montana who presented each crew member with a braided sprig of sweet grass from Canada.; Alling, a native of New York, said before the experiment began that she expects life inside Biosphere 2 to be "much like a ship setting sail for the open sea."; "You're out there, and whatever you have on board and whoever is with you on board is who you've got, and you've got to make it through whatever comes up," she said.; The four-man, four-woman group has two people from England, one from Belgium and five from the United States.; Each crew member is likely to spend about four hours daily on farming and other chores to maintain the complicated machinery driving the Biosphere. Another four hours a day will go to scientific work.; Sex has not been ruled out among the crew members, but none of the four women plans a pregnancy.; Mark van Thillo, 30, of Belgium said he would miss his country's chocolates, while Taber McCallum, 27, of Albuquerque, N.M., said he'll regret not "sailing on the open ocean and the open sky."; The crew is hoping to stay inside for two years, barring serious illness or other calamity.; But Margret Augustine, president and chief executive officer of the project, said problems could crop up after a month or so that would require the crew to leave temporarily before returning for a solid two years. And a person could leave if he or she suffered from extreme psychological pressure, she said.; 'It's not a prison," she said.
At about four hours , the four -man and four -woman crew stepped inside the 3.15 acre geodesic- framed compound, Dan Old Elk , for a month test of space colonization technology. Biosphere II consists of several climatic zones--rain forest, savanna, ocean and marsh-- packed with four plant and animal species. Communications apparatus connects the crew with a control station a few hundred yards away. Each member will spend about four hours daily on farming and chores for maintaining machinery driving the Biosphere . Problems could crop up after a month or so that would require the crew to leave temporarily before returning for a solid two-year .