407-CommanderReport

Commander Report

04/07/2014

Paulina Sidwell

Another beautiful day in Mars. Today we woke up bright and early to music provided by Kelsey. We

decided to each make ourselves our own breakfast, and we discussed the upcoming day while we ate.

Kelsey, our biologist, had an activity planned for us. She made TSA agar and explained the

experiment, the purpose of which was to swab the Hab for the presence of bacteria. We each swabbed a

test site of our choosing and then streaked our agar plate. We labeled the plates and Kelsey placed

them in the incubator to grow any bacteria present. These plates will be evaluated for bacterial

growth after 48 hours.

After finishing the activity and the morning’s Green Hab and engineering activities, all crew

members spent the rest of the morning working on their independent research projects. I began

getting ready to paint! I spent the rest of the day painting the bathroom downstairs a nice tan

color. I enjoyed doing it, and it is looking great.

We all had leftovers for lunch together and discussed everyone’s progress on their projects. After

lunch, we all continued with what we were doing. Kyle worked on details pertaining to his radio

astronomy project; Josh completed project code and then began with implementation; Kelsey still

needs to collect more samples, and worked on her research paper and project. Dylan has been

collecting data regarding team cohesion. Also, Liz and Kelsey suited-up to step outside for a little

while and walked around the hab.

After Kelsey finished her GreenHab rounds, she and Josh began preparing dinner for the rest of the

crew. We are having delicious Jambalaya and more leftovers. The sky seems to be clear tonight, so we

will request permission to have our astronomy EVA tonight. Overall, a very

productive day in Mars!