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Four-person crew sealed in pressurized habitat at Biosphere 2

The team began the 6-day mission Thursday

By: Ryan Fish , Austin Janos

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TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Beginning Thursday, April 27 at 9 a.m., a four-person crew given the moniker Inclusion 1 made their way inside a sealed, pressurized habitat within the Biosphere 2 compound.

The crew will stay inside the habitat, known as the Space Analog for the Moon and Mars (or 'SAM'), for 6 days. SAM was built by Biosphere 2 researchers as an "experimental prototype" to understand how humans might live and work in space.

UArizona's Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, Paragon Space Development Corporation, as well as NASA assisted in the development of SAM.

"Thirty years ago, eight people sealed themselves inside Biosphere 2 for two years. For the first time since, a crew will seal themselves inside of an analog habitat at this historic location," said Kai Staats, director of research for SAM at Biosphere 2.

"It's a machine, it's a spaceship without rockets," Staats added Thursday. “It’s not just the experiments they’re running inside, it’s the building itself is the experiment. This is not a finished product, it’s just the beginning.”

The crew, known as the Inclusive I team, consists of:

Cassandra Klos: mission commander and photographer
Eiman Jahangir: mission medical officer
Bailey Burns: mission engineer
Sheri Wells-Jensen: mission communications officer

Wells-Jensen is also blind, and will help address accessibility concerns within the habitat.
“Right now, we’re sort of set up for able-bodied people to go to space," she said Thursday. "And we have not done enough consideration of how people with different bodies and different abilities will fit into that program. And we really cannot afford to go to space and leave 25 percent of humanity behind. Twenty-five percent of people identify as having a disability… We need to go to space with everybody.”

You can read more about the team and their extensive collective experience here.

The Inclusive I team will exit the SAM on May 2.

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