Commander Report
01/24/2013
Angelo Vermeulen
Also today, the entire crew stayed at the hab and focused on research.
Yajaira Sierra-Sastre conducted hygiene monitoring in different locations in the habitat including
kitchen surfaces, lab sink handles, and bathroom surfaces. Different cleaning procedures were
evaluated in order to determine the most effective sanitation strategy. Hygiene monitoring was
conducted with an ATP luminometer.
Angelo Vermeulen conducted routine maintenance at the GreenHab. Wireless temperature monitoring showed a significant increase in temperature last night in comparison with the night(s) before.
Minimum temperature increased from about 40°F to 55°F.
Oleg Abramov took another time series of thermographic photos the dome and telescope. He analyzed thermographic data and wireless sensor data from yesterday – from the GreenHab and one of the state rooms. The wireless temperature sensor that was operating in the state room was installed in the observatory at 4pm. These data will be analyzed tomorrow.
Simon Engler postponed his EVA with the rover to tomorrow due to rain.
Kate Greene updated the ZEO firmware, and wrote a full explainer about her sleep-light study for
the crew. She also worked on the debriefing list and HI-SEAS schedule with me. More about that
below.
Sian Proctor has been working on the second HI-SEAS video and has been preparing exit videos to be shot tomorrow or on Saturday.
For HI-SEAS nasal patency and odorant ID tests were carried out. We addressed a last question from the list of HI-SEAS discussion topics. We discussed the tendency for compliance with rules and procedures to deteriorate over time, and how to avoid that. We also began to discuss the transition to HI-SEAS. We completed a debriefing list to be discussed on Saturday with Kim Binsted. We started building a schedule for the HI-SEAS mission based on our experiences here at MDRS. And we compiled feedback on the habitat design for HI-SEAS.
I still haven’t found the time yet to answer the questions of Mission Support guests Alison
Deatsch, Ross McFarland and Daniel Konzman from Elon University. I hope to be able to do this
before turnover on Saturday.
Routine checks and hab maintenance were performed.