At the beginning of the year I was extremely confused on where to take my research. I could've explored how: 

• Aerogels impacted thermodynamics as spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere after a mission.

• A Mars simulated atmospheric pressure impacted the growth of algae physically.

• Humans feeling the impact of microgravity.

• The way plants react to zero-gravity.

However, I quickly realized that all my possible topics were not quite feasible and would require resources that I simply did not have as a high school student. For example, simulating zero gravity would be physically impossible unless my plants were to get transported onto the ISS.

Then, after researching more into gaps in research surrounding Mars simulated environments on Earth, I got the idea of simualting different wavelengths or colors of light to match that of Mars.

However,  I did more research into that specific topic and found that many studies relating to wavelengths on Mars were done. Additionally simulating an environment with many different types of lights would be tough. 

More research got my wondering about the light intensities on Mars and how they differ from Earth. I realized I could try to simulate a Mars-like environment using Mars's light intensity versus that of Earth's. 

Previous research gave me an idea of how to implement some parts of my research project such as how to use trypan blue and a hemocytometer to count cells and how my algae should be cultured along with the timing I should use for my light system setup.

After meeting with my mentor, my research methodology came into structure and I was able to visualize how my experiment would look for the first time.

For my Research methodology I decided to first:

1. Take out my algae from their original packaging and store them in a cool area. 

2. Then, I have to culture my algae by using a pipette to place it consistently among 3 petri dishes for the Chlorella vulgaris in low light and 3 for the high light. (I will have 10 mL of algae for 200mL of algae freshwater medium both from Carolina Scientific Lab.) 

3. To sterilize my freshwater medium, I will need to boil the solution at 250 degrees Farenheit. 

4. This solution will go into the sterilized Petri dishes and will then be stored inside my thermally insulated box and I will start testing with my light source. 

5. I will implement a 16 hour on, 8 hour off light system with a timer as it was a common approach I saw in research.

6. After that, if I keep the algae at an optimal temperature of about 22 degrees Celsius, I should be good to go to culture my algae for long term use of two weeks.

7. After I split the algae up into the 6 Petri dishes, I can take the remaining amount and count the algae within the medium at the beginning of the experiment as the control group. 

8. Then, I will start to monitor the algae throughout the two week time period of data collection. 

9. At the very end of my two week period, or when the algae start to die off, I will take out samples of the experimental ground of algae and mix it in a centrifuge tube with Trypan Blue, an algae stain to identify living algae cells and count them clearly. 

10. I will use a small pipette to inject some of the solution into a hemocytometer which then I will use a microscope to study and effectively count how many cells I have as opposed to the beginning. 

11.  I will also use an additional magnification to identify some physical characteristics of cells inside my chosen squares and test how the overall health of the plant cells are doing by implementing a color code based on the amount the cells are dyed. 

If I find a strong correlation or conclusion within my data, it will make a huge difference in the Bioastronautics Field and help future researchers, providing them with a factor for their research or something to build upon. For example I could find a difference in the amount of growth each algae group faces in certain conditions and then using statistical analysis, find the exact difference or correlation. This would highly impact other researchers like me who are interested in studying differences in Mars and Earth and looking for potential food sources to supply humans on Mars in the future. My research can become a starting point in their research and they might better understand methodologies and experimental setups due to my research. Other than supporting future researchers, my research will also help other professional scientists synthesize if the significance I found has depth and they can test it for experimental assurance.