Editor’s note: This story was originally published on Sept. 26, 2024.

A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.

The human terrarium.

The first reality show.

Spaceship earth.

On Sept. 26, 1991, four men and four women began a two-year stay inside a sealed-off structure in Oracle, Arizona, called Biosphere 2; they emerged from Biosphere 2 on the same date in 1993.

Clad in bulky jumpsuits that resembled spacesuits, the group walked into the Santa Catalina Mountains situated between Phoenix and Tucson in southern Arizona to an enclosed glass structure known as Biosphere 2. Their goal was to live and sustain life inside the biosphere.

Built between 1987 and 1991, Biosphere 2 had a goal of demonstrating the viability of closed ecological systems to sup

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