Biosphere 2 Project undertaken by Space Biosphere Ventures, a private ecological research firm funded by Edward P. Bass of Texas. 'Biospherian's' Jane Poynter, Mark Nelson and Roy Walford eating lunch inside Biosphere 2. Walford authored a book titled The Anti-Aging Plan. He died in 2004 at age 79 of ALS. Biosphere 2 was a privately funded experiment, designed to investigate the way in which humans interact with a small self-sufficient ecological environment, and to look at possibilities for future planetary colonization.1992