Category: Greenhab Report

Crew 221 GreenHab Report 07FEB2020

GreenHab Officer: Jessica Todd

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average temperatures: 23.75°C

Hours of supplemental light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 10 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0.5 gallons

Water in Blue Tank: 232.5 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 3

Changes to crops: Ginger has sprouted! The wilty tomatoes look much better today after a healthy watering. Butter lettuce also has bugs so I gave it a little spray with the pesticide. One of the strawberry plants has flowered!

Narrative: I performed a moisture check on all the plant beds to give me a better idea of their water needs. The lettuce plants take up water quite slowly, whereas the herbs and the tomatoes require at least two waterings a day. Luis and I also checked on our Blue Corn experiment. Unfortunately the Martian soil is basically like cement or clay when it gets wet and so the corn is likely struggling. We’ve halved the soil samples and mixed half with Earth soil to see if that makes a difference. Maria and I are also planning a mungbeans experiment, looking at different Martian soil to Earth ratios to see if we can grow anything in the next week. We will set that up tomorrow.

Harvest: NA

Support/supplies needed: NA

Other Notes: N/A

 

Crew 221 GreenHab Report 06FEB2020

GreenHab Officer: Jessica Todd

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average temperatures: 18.33°C

Hours of supplemental light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 9.2 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: 0.5 gallons

Water in Blue Tank: 243 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 1

Changes to crops: Two of the four succulent plants seemed to have recovered a bit, yay! The leaves are more plump. Waiting on the other two. I repotted one of the sadder looking ones, as the soil was completely dry and barren and the roots didn’t seem healthy. Hanging lettuce pot on the bottom was fully soaked in water. As the pot has no drainage, will leave lettuce unwatered for the next day in the hopes that the soil dries out a bit. A few tomato plants are wilting. Rotated the plants on the bed. Ginger has almost sprouted, and the radish sprinklers, bell peppers and roma tomato have all sprouted.

Narrative: The plant beds were very moist this morning so I skipped the morning watering. Crew Engineer and I set up a new experiment in the GreenHab. We are going to attempt to grow Blue Corn from Martian soil! We have set up four trays on one of the benches, one as the control and three containing different types of Martian soil, mixed with some fertilizer. We’ve planted several rows of blue corn and will be watering it and monitoring the soil conditions each day.

Harvest: NA

Support/supplies needed: NA

Other Notes: Have sprayed the herb garden and the carrots and icy radishes with some pesticide to get rid of the small bugs. Will not harvest for the next few days. Also, slightly concerned about the wilty tomato plants. I have no experience with tomatos. Would this be a symptom of too much/little water? Or too much/little sunlight?

Crew 221 GreenHab Report 05FEB2020

GreenHab Officer: Jessica Todd

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average temperatures: 19°C

Hours of supplemental light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 14.7 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: NA

Water in Blue Tank 252.7 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 2

Changes to crops: NA

Narrative: Crew Journalist Hemani took over morning watering today as the GreenHab Officer was off on an early EVA, collecting soil for some botany experiments. We harvested some butter letter and lettuce for our Mexican dinner feast! Evening watering was good, gave the plants a healthy watering as the soil was very dry for a few of the beds.

Harvest: 7g Butter Lettuce, 11g Lettuce

Support/supplies needed: NA

Other Notes: Watered the succulents and aloe. They don’t look any worse but not much better either. I would love some advice on how to help these succulents recover. Photos of the strawberry plants are attached to this email. As we were using the herbs and lettuce tonight for dinner, will spray the bug-infested beds tomorrow with the pesticide.

Crew 221 GreenHab Report 05FEB2020

GreenHab Officers: Jessica Todd

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average Temperature: 19°C

10:12 am

Floor Unit: 21°C

5:59 pm

Floor Unit: 17°C

Hours of Supplemental Light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 14.7 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: N/A

Water in Blue Tank: 252.7 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 2

10:12 am = 4.2 galleons

5:59 pm = 10.5 galleons

Changes to crops: NA.

Narrative: Crew Journalist Hemani took over morning watering today as the GreenHab Officer was off on an early EVA, collecting soil for some botany experiments. We harvested some butter letter and lettuce for our Mexican dinner feast! Evening watering was good, gave the plants a healthy watering as the soil was very dry for a few of the beds.

Harvest: 7g Butter Lettuce, 11g Lettuce

Support/supplies needed: N/A

Other Notes:

Watered the succulents and aloe. They don’t look any worse but not much better either. I would love some advice on how to help these succulents recover. Photos of the strawberry plants are attached to this email. As we were using the herbs and lettuce tonight for dinner, will spray the bug-infested beds tomorrow with the pesticide.

Crew 221 GreenHab Report 04-02-2020

GreenHab Officers: Jessica Todd

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average Temperature: 20.25°C

10:27 am

Floor Unit: 20°C

12:30 pm

Floor Unit: 22°C

1:42 pm

Floor Unit: 22°C

7:02 pm

Floor Unit: 17°C

Hours of Supplemental Light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 17.9 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: N/A

Water in Blue Tank: 267.4 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 3

10:27 am = 7.9 galleons

1:42 pm = 0.5 galleons

7:05 pm = 9.5 gallons

Changes to crops: NA.

Narrative: A morning water before our maintenance EVA today. I watered a few of the herbs again in the middle of the day per Crew 220’s instructions. When watering tonight I noticed quite a few plants were dry, so perhaps too hot in the GreenHab today. We might need to open the door tomorrow for a bit to keep the temperature even. We harvested some cilantro to have with our green curry for dinner tonight.

Harvest: 3g Cilantro

Support/supplies needed: N/A

Other Notes:

Aloe and succulents unchanged. Will water again tomorrow. The strawberry plant leaves are browning and rotting at the edges. From the information sent through in yesterday’s comms window, this may be an indication of black root rot or verticillium wilt. I think I will need to check the roots tomorrow for indication of black root rot. Am not sure how to proceed in rescuing these plants. Also noticed a number of small insects around the herbs, carrots and radishes. Should I spray with pesticide?

Crew 221 GreenHab Report 03-02-2020

GreenHab Officers: Jessica Todd

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average Temperature: 21.33°C

8:06

Floor Unit: 19°C

09:54

Floor Unit: 23°C

12:52

Floor Unit: 21°C

14:26

Floor Unit: 30°C

14:53

Floor Unit: 21°C

18:55

Floor Unit: 14°C

Hours of Supplemental Light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 14.7 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: N/A

Water in Blue Tank: 285.3 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 3

08:19 = 6.3 galleons

12:52 = 0.5 galleons

18:55 = 7.9 gallons

Changes to crops: NA.

Narrative: Its Sol 1 and as today was a day packed with EVAs so plant duty was mostly just watering and checking on the status of the strawberries and succulents. I was hoping that after their deep watering last night I would find the succulent leaves nice and distended with water, however they still look a little limp. I’ve watered again, hopefully the next few days will see the succulents revive a little. Tomorrow we’ll be starting to look at growing some of our own plants for the duration of our MDRS mission. Looking forward to harvesting some of the delicious herbs for dinner tomorrow!

Harvest: N/A

Support/supplies needed: N/A

Other Notes:

Aloe and succulents on upper shelf below the heater are still dry and not distended. Gave another healthy watering, and will continue to monitor.

Crew 221 GreenHab Report 02-02-2020

GreenHab Officers: Marufa Bhuiyan (Crew 220) and Jessica Todd (Crew 221)

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average Temperature: 21.75°C

7:50
Floor Unit: 18°C

11:30
Floor Unit: 29°C

12:00
Floor Unit: 22°C

18:30
Floor Unit: 18°C

Hours of Supplemental Light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 11.1 galleons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: N/A

Water in Blue Tank: 88.44 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 2

07:55= 2.1 galleons

18:40= 9 galleons

Changes to crops: Strawberry plants status unchanged.

Narrative: Today was Sol 0 and the first day in the GreenHab for Crew 221. Today was focused on getting familiar with the GreenHab protocols and procedures, as well as all the beautiful plants we’ll be taking care of for the next two weeks. Crew 221 is ready to demonstrate some serious botany prowess!

Harvest: N/A

Support/supplies needed: N/A

Other Notes:

Strawberry plants are starting to die, please advise.

Aloe and succulents on the upper shelf below the heater are very dry, gave a healthy watering, but will monitor for the next few days, and may need to move them to a cooler location.

GreenHab Officers: Marufa Bhuiyan and Morgan Kainu

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average temperatures: 16.2 °C

8:22

Floor Unit: 16 °C

10:14

Floor Unit: 10 °C

12:46

Floor Unit: 15 °C

3:04

Floor Unit: 26 °C

18:38

Floor Unit: 14 °C

Hours of supplemental light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 15.8 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: NA

Water in Blue Tank 92.14 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 1

09:50 = 8.4 gallons

18:45 = 7.4 gallons

Harvest: 55 g mystery spinach, 1 g chives, 2 g cilantro, 5 g rosemary, 5 g basil, 10 g oregano, 10 g marjoram

Support/supplies needed: NA

Other Notes:

Strawberry plant is starting to die (top far right corner shelf)

Water in blue tank running low and needs to be refilled

GreenHab Officers: Marufa Bhuiyan and Morgan Kainu

Environmental control: Heating. GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average temperatures: 19.3 °C
08:33
Floor Unit: 20 °C
12:30
Floor Unit: 26 °C
13:49
Floor Unit: 15 °C
18:15
Floor Unit: 16 °C

GreenHab door opened: 12:30 and closed: 13:49

Hours of supplemental light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 13.7 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: NA

Water in Blue Tank 100.04 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 2
08:33 = 6.3 gallons
18:15 = 7.4 gallons

Changes to crops: The following tubs/plants need to be relabeled:
• Ginger (fresh from market – it was brought in to mission by crew member Matt Wise).
• Mystery seed ( Crew member M. Bhuiyan re-arranged found a mystery seed, there was no label in it and no one knows yet what plant this is. Probably it will be a surprise for the next MDRS crews).
• Romania lettuce, Radish sparkle, Bell pepper (California Wonder)

Harvest: 22 g icicle radish, 14 g purple sun radish, 7 g cilantro, 4 g basil, 4 g oregano, 3 g lemon balm, 4 g marjoram, 14 g wild rocket, 3 g buttercrunch, 1 g chives, 7 g lettuce

Support/supplies needed: NA

Other notes:
• Sweeped the floor, getting ready to introduce our GreenHab to the next MDRS crews.
• Labelled two tubs as recycle bins: 1. Organic (plant remains/dead plants) and 2. Inorganic (non-burn items).
• Added a new cleaning brush (red color)

GreenHab Officers: Marufa Bhuiyan and Morgan Kainu

Environmental control: Heating.

GreenHab door shade cloth (40%) (30%) on.

Average temperatures: 21.4 °C

08:34

Floor Unit: 19 °C

12:17

Floor Unit: 26 °C

15:20

Floor Unit: 26 °C

15:52

Floor Unit: 16 °C

18:49

Floor Unit: 20 °C

GreenHab door opened: 15:20 and closed at 15:52

Hours of supplemental light: 19:30 to 00:00

Daily water usage for crops: 14.2 gallons

Daily water usage for research and/or other purposes: NA

Water in Blue Tank 113.74 gallons

Time(s) of watering for crops: 3

08:34 = 6.1 gallons

12:17 = 1.8 gallons

19:07 = 6.3 gallons

Changes to crops: Planted ginger in a new tub.

Harvest: NA

Support/supplies needed: Disposal unit: organic (e.g. plant remains) and inorganic (chemicals, metals, empty seed bags etc)