Day 5 Mission Report
Morning Operations
Groundhog Day has set in for the crew as they entered the 5th day of the mission, waking at 0730, completing morning surveys, and eating breakfast before beginning research and EVA activities.
Media Outreach
Mission Specialist Guthrie completed preparations for the crew's media outreach scheduled for tomorrow at 1100 EST. The planned itinerary is to begin EVA prep at 0900 CST, with Pre-Flight and live broadcast starting at 1000 CST, and finally a medical EVA operation starting at 1030 CST. The crew will additionally conduct another EVA at 2100 CST that will also be broadcasted for a virtual audience. The crew also spent the day filming video logs, including a tour of the habitat that will be posted in the next few days.
EVA Operations
There were no EVA operations scheduled today, as there was a significant amount of rain late in the day and over the night. In place of an EVA, they spent the morning rehearsing and preparing for the media outreach scheduled for tomorrow. Linking the EVA operations communications system to a live broadcast has proven to be a challenging technological challenge.
The solution the crew has come up with is to utilize google meet for EVA operational communications, while the viewers from the online audience will be logged into a zoom meeting that will be broadcasting the EVA. While this may sound like an overly complex solution it was determined to be important in testing that the EVA operations communications and audience broadcast need to operate independently of each other to better ration bandwidth and reduce task saturation on the crew.
Stress Mitigation Study
Today was the second day of Mission Specialist Lojek’s stress mitigation through breathing study. The crew successfully stopped for 5 minutes each hour for 8 hours today. The information is recorded on wrist mounted fitness devices, and further compiled by MS Lojek.
Plant Module Operations
Plants have really taken off. However, there’s no plant emerging from the regolith test. Mission Commander Trevino is working through the water content of the regolith/soil, but he believes the seeds may have been a bit low in the soil, compared to the surface layer.
The NASA Plant Pods, which had to be altered for ILMAH mission purpose, are popping up quickly! First harvest of a pod could be the first part of next week. Growth rate is, bluntly, fast! Over a mm per day and the canopy is multiplying, also quickly!
The UND melon experiment is also taking off. The cotyledon has replicated and a couple of the exudates have doubled. More to come here. The crew could expect melons by mid summer!
The trays of 50 micro pods are also flying along. Micro basil and arugula can be harvested, also by mid week, next week.
The last test, growing microgreens in low nM wavelength blue light and red light, or UVA/UVB light seems to be taking off. The seed capsules have ruptured and the tap root is heading down. MC Trevino wonders if they know which way is down in microgravity!?
Finally, the plant module has been quite consistent in temperature and humidity. The light wavelengths in there are ideal but they just take too much power. There are better mousetraps. The Japanese, and MS Trevino both believe that we should constantly iterate and improve. Kaizen!
Evening Operations
Mission Specialist Guthrie continues to innovate, as she has constructed a “bean bag chair” out of materials found in the habitat. The crew settled down for an evening movie and look forward to tomorrow's media outreach.