Sol: 9
Summary Title: Sim Nears End
Author’s name: David Laude (XO)
Mission Status: Nominal, Hab fully prepared for in-sim operations
Sol Activity Summary: The day started with breakfast pancakes made
by Dave, during which time was discussed how our daily routine will run for
the next few sols. Dave and Inga completed EVA #6 to Candor Chasma. Jin started working
on a special edition of the journalist report for the final soul. Jin and Inga also
have been working on chili for dinner. Some greens were harvested from the
GreenHab for consumption. Lindsay has been using a DNA sequencer to identify
organisms. She investigated two regolith samples and got very low DNA yield so far.
She will continue with additional samples to see if she can get better DNA yield.
Either way, she will determine if she can identify particular microbes from low DNA yield.
Look Ahead Plan: Tomorrow will have a 7-8 hour break in sim for Dave and Jin as Jin needs to take a Covid test ahead of his flight from Grand Junction to Canada and Dave with a US drivers license will drive him for the test. Travel will be by Crew Car to Fruita just west of Grand Junction. The crew’s sim will soon end as they will clean the station for the next crew this Friday and depart MDRS Saturday for home.
Anomalies in work: Radio failure in field issues mostly battery related. Crew Engineer Dave will conduct more battery tests in hopes of culling out some weak batteries. Tests are done by charging a battery and then with a radio set to high power transmit level the push to talk button is held down with a clamp. A timer is used to time when the battery indicator in the radio indicates a depleted battery.
Weather: High of 71F today, partly cloudy. increasing winds in the afternoon with gusts ~20-25 MPH.
Crew Physical Status: All crew nominal.
EVA: Eva #6 with Dave and Inga to Candor Chasma was fully successful. Returned to airlock within seconds of planned arrival.
Reports to be filed: Science, Photo, Sol, Journalist
Support Requested: None
END