And then Steve Bannon showed up.
In 1993, Mr. Bannon was a long way from becoming a nationalist celebrity or presidential adviser. At the time he was a Beverly Hills-based investment banker specializing in takeovers. Mr. Bass tapped Mr. Bannon to overhaul Space Biosphere Ventures, which was hemorrhaging money. According to Mr. Bannon, Biosphere 2 would run a deficit of $16 million to $20 million in 1993 alone.
By the time the first Biosphere 2 crew emerged, Mr. Bannon had decided Mr. Allen and the rest of the leadership would have to go. They were fired in April 1994, shortly after the second mission had begun. That purge is what spurred Ms. Alling and Mr. Van Thillo to break into Biosphere 2.
After they were arrested, Ms. Alling tearfully told the press that they had been worried for the safety of the new crew. If Biosphere 2’s atmosphere wasn’t properly tended, she implied, they might die. Ms. Alling cited the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, caused by negligent management. “I take this extremely serious,” she said.
There was an outbreak of lawsuits, followed by many quiet settlements. The second team of Biospherians tried to continue the mission, but it was cut short five months later. Mr. Bannon brokered a deal with Columbia University to take over the running of Biosphere 2.
The dreams of biospheres on Mars vanished. Humans would no longer be bottled up to see if they could survive. Instead, scientists set up experiments to address narrower, more focused questions, such as how coral reefs are affected by high levels of carbon dioxide. Columbia ran Biosphere 2 until 2003, and eventually the University of Arizona took over. In 2011, Mr. Bass officially donated Biosphere 2 to the university, along with $20 million to support its research. Biosphere 2 still stands today, and science is still going on inside its walls. But there are no more bush babies or people in jumpsuits.