Crew 245 GreenHab Report 22-04-2021
GreenHab Officer: none, report written by Crew Scientist Olivia Ettlin
Environmental control: heater is kept on all day at 65 degrees.
Average temperatures: heat kept to 65 degrees, daily temperatures higher due to sunlight.
Hours of supplemental light: 0 hours
Daily water usage for crops: none
Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: add 500 mL to hydroponics garden daily, 1000mL added to regolith feasibility experiment
Water in Blue Tank: 0 gallons
Time(s) of watering for crops: regolith experiment crops watered at approximately 11:45 this morning. It only took half a watering can (so approx. 1000mL) to re-hydrate the seeds.
Changes to crops: no crops to maintain
Narrative: Today, we noticed that the cotyledons that were emerging from the soil in the regolith feasibility experiment were starting to dry up. The seeds themselves still have viable roots, but this is more proof to us that the extreme heat of the season might not have been conducive to the growth of young plants. This wasn’t really apparent while the seeds were germinating, but we’ll know for next time to leave young plants in the lower deck of the Hab, and save the Greenhab for our established plants. We’ll also make sure for next time to monitor the temperature better during the day and implement more environmental controls as needed.
In exciting news, the hydroponics experiment has been a resounding success! The garden yielded 20 tall green onion plants and 16 tomato plants with hearty roots. I’ll soon start crunching the numbers to determine if we had any significant difference in plant growth between the fertilizer variables, but overall this experiment has provided strong evidence to support the feasibility of hydroponics gardens on Mars.
Harvest: none
Support/supplies needed: none at this time.