[title Science Report – November 19th]
Science Report 19 November 2019
SOL: 9
Crew 215 – Expedition Boomerang Crew
Submitted by Science Officer Andrew Wheeler
Science Dome Operations: The experimenting with gypsum and sand to create a form of
plaster of paris cement commenced. Various samples of known mass were heated for 5 or
10 minutes and either combined with sand or not and then mixed with 4ml or 8ml of
water. Each slurry was placed into a tray and is being allowed to dry to examine
strength. A byproduct of this experiment is the realization that the finely ground
gypsum is actual plaster of paris and could be used for its intended medical purpose on
Mars.
Green Hab: Green Hab operations have continued with additional soil and potting mix
allowing further crops to be sown. See Green Hab report.
RAM Operations: N/A
EVA: The final EVA for science saw us returning rock specimens used for identification
and training purposes to the collection sites to the west of White Rock Canyon. See EVA
Report.
EVA Suit Maintenance: Nominal. See Operations Report.
Psycho-social Stressors Monitoring: Data collection continues through the hexoskin(TM)
monitoring vests.
Additional activities: Two potential medical uses of material being liberated from the
gypsum experiments, the original medical use of plaster of paris and the liberated
water (being equivalent to distilled water) used to create a saline solution (NaCl),
were evaluated concurrently with the cement creation trials.