Crew 221 Journalist Report 05Feb2020
Author: Hemani Kalucha, Crew Journalist
Sol 3
Title: Exploring the Moons!
Today, we made good progress on our microbiology and black corn experiments. Early morning, Commander Grulich started the process of testing bacteria growth on Mars by taking swabs of the spacesuit helmet before and after cleaning. We are going to include this sample in our bacteria tests to see how efficiently the suits are cleaned! Then, three crew members went on a long and adventurous EVA out to the moons! They collected samples from the site of an ex-canyon, where many water flow channels were present. Water allows for presence of life, and this made the moons an excellent candidate for our microbiology sample collection. We followed new procedures to prevent cross contamination of samples, and even collected a sample of the air on Mars, to see what was going on there! Lastly, Crewmate Luis collected bags of soil from the Moons, in an attempt to take them back to the Greenhab and grow black corn in martian soil! After this tiring EVA, the crew members rested, and two other crew members expeditioned to North Ridge on a second EVA to collect iron rich samples for the microbiology samples. The samples were then prepared and put into the incubator at 25 degrees Celsius. We are excitedly awaiting the results! Our naps helped us recharge, and we managed to put together a delicious meal of tacos! Good night for now, Earthlings.