Science Report
Crew: 221
Date: 06-FEB-20
Crew Science Officer: Hemani Kalucha
1. Microbiology Research Today, we experimented with the microbiology samples collected from yesterday’s EVA. Each sample was weighed and one gram of each sample was taken for futher preparation. The 1 gram was put into 100ml of distilled water and then diluted further into 9ml of distilled water with 1 ml of of the previous solution (10^-3 concentration of potential bacteria). A small amount of the final solution was then spread onto the petri dishes to be incubated at 25degC. The samples from yesterday were inspected and the first signs of bacteria growth was identified on the sample of the space suit before we cleaned the helmet. This sample will be further analysed in the coming days. A first attempt to prepare our own agar was done but resulted in a spill which was cleaned and a new attempt will be done tomorrow.
2. ISRU project Today we set up four trays – one control fertilized soil with perlite and three different types of mars regolith, collected on EVA 4. Within each sample, half was fertilized and half was not. Then, several rows of black corn were inserted and kept in direct sunlight in the greenhab. Each tray was watered with 0.5 litres. The soil health and crop health will be monitored over the next week.