Log Book for January 6, 2011
Commander's Report
Judah Epstein Reporting
Today was another productive day on Mars! After breakfast and morning
exercise; Judah, Jim, and Nathan began EVA #5. The crew collected
sand sized regolith for use in Judah's sedimentary filter experiment.
The location had already been determined on yesterday's reconnaissance
EVA. The afternoon EVA was a reconnaissance EVA for Nathan's Rock
Varnish Study and Amanda's Water Gully study. The purpose was to
determine locations for potential rock sampling. This was the crew's
first EVA on ATV, in order to explore a larger geographic area.
Nathan, Amanda, Jim, and Judah departed for the mission.
Unfortunately, ATV troubles were encountered and Judah returned to the
HAB. But Nathan, Amanda, and Jim were successful in scouting for
potential sampling locations.
The Crew Engineer, Commander, and DG also spent a significant amount
of the day working on creating a new system of piping from the outside
potable water tank to the inside potable water tank. A new pipe was
installed and therefore the HAB now has a functioning system to refill
the inside potable water tank. The old system was designed whereas
water was always in the bottom section of the pipe; whereas it was
vulnerable to freezing. The new system completely drains the pipe back
to the main tank, thus nearly removing the potential for freezing of
water lines.
The psycho-physiological experiment has received human research
approval and thus Tonya has been working diligently on preparations of
her experiment. She will begin taking baseline readings tonight; and
tomorrow will begin more extensive analysis.
The water filtration experiment is achieving additional results. As
the schmutzdecke biological layer may still be forming on the slow
sand filters, all 3 filters reported positive levels of bacteria of
the effluent water from the influent sedimentary filtered greywater.
The MDRS Wetland Filtration System reported negative levels of
bacteria, but the water was tested from the tank that receives bleach
each day. Future days of MDRS Wetland Filtration testing will be from
the water tank before the tank that receives bleach.
Today is Crew Engineer Nathan's Birthday. Therefore tonight the crew
will be celebrating Nathan's Martian Birthday Party with fun games and
home-made cupcakes. Tomorrow will consist of additional in-HAB
experiments, beginning the psycho-physiological study, an EVA for
Satellite data comparison, and an afternoon EVA for Amanda's Water
Gully experiment.