Biosphere 2 Project undertaken by Space Biosphere Ventures, a private ecological research firm funded by Edward P. Bass of Texas. Two of the candidates for the Biosphere 2 Project, Norberto Alvarez-Romo and Mark Van Thillo). 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. 1990