In 1991, eight people walked in a large glass dome in the Arizona desert. Camera crews captured the group as they disappeared into the void. The structure was built by billionaire Ed Bass who hoped to use the facility for research into what it would take to build a colony on an alien world. The philanthropist enlisted a crew of four men and four women to spend two years locked inside the biosphere without any contact with the outside world. In the most American of ways, the event was broadcast to the world. Biosphere 2 became the world's first reality tv show, and just like every reality tv show, it was dramatic.

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