Looking for something completely different yet totally safe to do with your family this weekend?
Biosphere 2 is here for you.
For the next two months, the grounds of the research facility, originally built to be a self-sustaining, controlled environment, will be open from 6 to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays for self-guided driving tours.
The tour, which takes about 25 minutes to complete, brings visitors through core areas of Biosphere 2, according to press materials, including stops at the desert biome and outside of “the lung.” “The lung” equalized the air exchange during the original Biosphere 2 mission that saw eight scientists and researchers sealed in the facility for two years.
A Biosphere 2 mobile app that can be downloaded from the Apple Store or Google Play will provide narration.
The driving tour is the first phase of Biosphere 2’s reopening to the public, deputy director John Adams said in press materials.
Tickets for the tour are $20 per car, carrying up to six passengers, and must be purchased in advance through the Biosphere 2 website, biosphere2.org.
A limited number of tickets will be sold per day.
To get there, take North Oracle Road-Arizona 77 about 20 miles north of Oro Valley, then follow the signs to the facility.
A look back at the early days of Biosphere II
A look back at the early days of Biosphere II
Updated
Inhabitants are to be sealed inside the Biosphere 2 complex Thursday.
A look back at the early days of Biosphere II
Updated
Dan Old Elk, a Crow Indian from Montana, gives a blessing to the people of the Biosphere II program, during a brief ceremony before entering the facility which will be home for the next two years. Sept. 26, 1991.
Biosphere II
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In this Sept. 26, 1991 file photo, participants in the Biosphere 2 project, including Dr. Roy L. Walford, second from left, enter the enclosed facility near Oracle, Ariz. Eight people agreed to spend two years sealed inside the 3-acre terrarium in the Sonoran Desert. Their mission back in the 1990s: To see whether humans might someday be able to create self-sustaining colonies in outer space. (AP Photo/Jeff Robbins)
A look back at the early days of Biosphere II
Updated
Portrait of Biospherians with the Biosphere II in the background. L-R: Marl Nelson, Linda Leigh, Abigail Alling, Mark Can Thillo, Sally Silverstone, Taber MacCallum, Jane Poynter and Dr. Roy Walford.
A look back at the early days of Biosphere II
Updated
Biosphere II Test Module. Technicians put the finishing touches on the test module of Biosphere II Project. Wednesday, 29-year-old Abigail K. Alling will be sealed in the 20-foot high, 23-square-foot capsule for five days. The marine mammals specialist will be cut off from everything in the outside except for sunlight and communication links. The experiment paves the way for a more extensive phase of the Biosphere II Project wherein eight people will live in a 2.5 acre Biosphere living for 24 months.
A look back at the early days of Biosphere II
Updated
Abigail Alling (front) takes her first breath of air after the crew of Biosphere 2 emerges after two years of captivity.
A look back at the early days of Biosphere II
Updated
Mother and daughter Avery Crossman, left, and Gayla Crossman came from Phoenix to welcome the biospherians with a sign.
A look back at the early days of Biosphere II
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U.S. Secretary of Commerce Robert A. Mosbacher holds a sheaf of wheat grown in the Biosphere II project, which he toured Tuesday while attending a government-sponsored conference in Tucson on exports. The Biosphere is a greenhouse-like complex designed to duplicate the Earth's ecological systems while sealed from it. Photo taken May 22, 1991.
A look back at the early days of Biosphere II
Updated
Sally Silverstone gets a hug from a well-wisher before the ceremony marking the actual entry in the biosphere. Sept. 26, 1991.
