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!