In 1991 a group of countercultural visionaries built an enormous replica of earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2. When eight “biospherians” lived sealed inside, they faced ecological calamities and cult accusations….

Though the concept of planet Earth as a ship pre-dates space travel, it wasn’t until Apollo astronauts photographed “Earth rise” that the metaphor of Spaceship Earth—a term championed by futurist…