Commander Report
> 04/16/2013
> Liz Mitchell
>
> This morning, James, Jennifer, and I cooking cinnamon rolls and muffin omelets for the entire crew.
> Over breakfast, we planned the day. We had several contingency plans, due to the possibility of
> inclement weather.
>
> Due to weather, we only had EVA today. James, Brad, Jennifer, and Santiago went on this EVA.
> Santiago collected samples for his research. James tested his comm equipment using his ham radio
> (for which he and Kyle both have licenses).
>
> Kyle and I stayed behind and cooked lunch. We cooked vegetable soup, bread, and carrot cake. The
> EVA crew came back exhausted, due to the high winds they had to deal with during the EVA. However,
> both Santiago and Kyle advanced forward with their research.
>
> After lunch, Brad and Santiago worked on pictures. Jennifer worked on her research poster.
> Jennifer also checked the plates for the microbiology labs; nothing has grown yet. We had this
> problem last January; it took our plates several more days here to grow cultures, as opposed to
> Waco. We hypothesize that the lower oxygen content in the air may be contributing to this process.
> Kyle worked on his project. I worked on a team building exercise for future MCC MDRS teams.
>
> Rain came in, and we did not go on any afternoon EVAs. Everyone continued on the tasks described
> above.
>
> Brad and James cooked vegetable pot pie and brownies for dinner. This evening, we have plans to do a
> team building exercise (1 of the 4 we came down here with).
>
> Jennifer has harvested a radish and some herbs from the greenhouse.
>
> Plans for tomorrow:
> Due to the risk of inclement weather, we have several plans. We will submit an EVA plan. However, if there is any risk of precipitation, we will not go on these EVAs.
>
> We will continue with the microbiology lab and putting together data.
>
> Current problems:
> We are running low on dish soap. We will need to resort to another method of cleaning dishes after
> the dish soap is gone.
>
> Due to the cold weather, we wanted to close the hatch. However, there is a note that says to keep
> the hatch open at all times (we speculate for any risk of carbon monoxide). Please advise about
> the hatch: do we need to leave it open, or can we close it?
>