Journalist Report
04/15/2013
James Veselka
Supersaturation
We started off the day with music from our Biologist that included Morcheeba, Imagine Dragons, and others. We had another epic assortment for breakfast that includes: oatmeal, banana chips, apple pie, cereal, and pizza as well as fresh coffee. There was also a surprise when we woke up, rain. The weather shows scattered showers throughout the day, so we re-planed the day to things inside.
We started the morning with the Microbiology Lab in which we swabbed different areas around the hab to test for bacteria. First we had to make two types of agar, or food for the bacteria. One called MacConkey’s Agar to test for Enteric bacteria like E. coli and the other one was Mannitol Salt Agar to test for Staphylococci or staph. After we made these they had to set up for a couple of hours, so we split up with some working on their research project and others starting to prepare dinner.
Liz did most of the cooking and prepared an epic dinner for us. She made pasta with cheese and
broccoli as Jennifer’s thought, baked potato slices, and baked broccoli and cheese casserole. I then assisted Liz in making homemade apple pie. I mixed the dough and other ingredients while she gave me the recipe. For the apple filling we combine sugar, water, and corn starch to make a supersaturated solution. The pie, along with everything else, turned out awesome and we had a dinner fit for kings together. And thanks to the food, all are in fantastic moods so a lot of work is getting done.
After dinner we again split up to work on our own research projects for a couple of hours, until the
agars were ready to use. Later when the agars were ready, each of use went around the hab and took a swab before cleaning a spot and after on that same spot. In this way we will be able to determine if cleaning really does kill the bacteria that we are testing. Then we had a group conversation of what we have learned so far on Mars that includes how important the group dynamic is and that calmness goes along way.
Then Brad, Santiago, and Kyle cooked supper as our in-team competition continues. The in-team
competition is a contest in cooking. It is a friendly in house competition where we are in sub teams for cooking; they are: Brad, Santiago, Kyle then Liz, Jennifer, Me. What we do is take turns cooking meals (mainly dinner and supper) and try to one up each other each time. This has worked beautifully with each meal being better than the last. Tonight we had Turin Delight, which consisted of pasta and vegetable pesto.
Overall it was an amazing day, even with the rain. Thankfully we have just as much to do inside as outside, so we still had a fun challenging day. Later we plan to look at the stars through the
telescope, if the sky is clear. I know that tomorrow will be another amazing day and I can say that
there is not any place else that I would rather be.
Until next time,
Journalist
James Veselka