The Crew enjoyed a day of rest due to poor weather raining on their parade. Fear not, the Crew took full advantage of their time. Aside from completing their traditional tasks and coursework assignments, they competitively engaged in some Mario Kart Racing. With some movies playing in the background, the team created flavorful meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The day wound down with the crew finishing up their evening surveys, assignments, and “How to crochet a wash rag.”
The Crew continued sharing their thoughts on the book club's selected book: ‘Packing for Mars’ by Mary Roach. So many wonderfully amusing, but relative topics. Lots of laughs.
The Crew and MCC watched the movie club’s selected film: ‘The Fifth Element.’ The Crew and MCC shared their thoughts and enjoyed some more laughs, and ‘ah-hah’ moments.
CO Turner made some Ghoulish Cranberry Maple Oatmeal and Martian scrambled eggs with a dash of Old Bay – thanks FD Miller!
MS Cecil and MS Gonzalez tearing up the road with some Mario Kart Racing. MS DeJan enjoying the races.
MS Cecil is learning to crochet a wash rag under the guidance of CO Turner. The Crew enjoyed some karaoke while crocheting. Fun times on Mission Mars!
The Crew enjoyed some karaoke under the Martian rain. Fun times on Mission Mars!
Hamama
The microgreens are growing extremely well.
Martian Soil
Three days after seeing her first sprouts pop up in B1 (Earth soil) MS Cecil was pleased this morning to find two baby sprouts in M1 (Martian soil). The PH levels in each bin are looking good ranging from 6.0 to 7.5. The temperature readings are 75 in the front bins and 85 on the back bins. So far it looks like adding the heating pad is only serving to dry out the soil instead of helping to stabilize the temperature overnight. Note: The heating pad is a set temperature and cannot be changed. MS Cecil will try using a heating pad again with a more controllable setup and heat sensors moving forward, end note. After drilling holes in the top of the plastic lids allowed for better air circulation while keeping in a higher level of humidify. This helped with moister levels while helping prevent fungi growth. After the young sprouts have had time to fully root in MS Cecil will use a soil tool to see if the roots truly hit the Martian regolith or if the soil on top was what the sprouts were really feeding on. MS Cecil is looking forward to the last 6 days of sim and how her plants will grow!
Measuring EVA Performance
MS Gonzalez continues to gather valuable sleep data and the crew is showing a trend with psychomotor vigilance tests results when taken in the morning. Crewmembers are eager to beat their previous day test results; however, the effects of the mission are becoming visible, even when an optimal amount of sleep is achieved. Now that 8 mission days of data is available, MS Gonzalez will begin plotting trends so that members can monitor their performance a little easier.
Mutually Sustained Systems for Space Flight
It was determined there was too much organic material extraneous to the live plants that was causing an excessive off gas of CO2 in the container. The Tank was sealed this morning and CO2 allowed to build to greater than 5000 PPM to weaken any substance affecting the total output of O2. Tomorrow, the tank will be disassembled, cleaned, plants purged of mold, etc. Then resealed to determine if any O2 content will be measurable.
Tank and plants moved out of the Green Room. This was done to prevent any of the other plant emissions from skewing the data. Plant debris removal and other cleanup items performed. Static measurements were taken, they will be compared with the overnight measurements the morning of Mission Day 9.
Green Study
CO Turner continues seeing new growth with the Earth and Lunar test and control microgreens.
Lunar Regolith Microgreens under blue spectrum light.
She found it interesting that the Kale Red Russian microgreen took an extra two days to germinate but has grown to or exceeded the growth height compared to the Earth and Lunar mustard and arugula microgreens. Fascinating! Plants rule!! Nothing to report yet in the Martian Regolith.
