Professor David Allred of Brigham Young University arrived this morning with a van full of students eager to advance scientific research on Mars. Dr. Allred is a professor of physics and astronomy at BYU who has been helping the Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station since it was in the planning stages.

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GreenHab Report:

Dr. Allred started the water pumping through the tanks and with the help of student Carlos Pozo worked on the wiring of the solar power system. He noted that the solar pod had originally been wired so that black wires were negative and white positive; he switched them so they will match the wiring of the rest of the Hab and made a note to that effect on the outside of the solar pod.

Students Niki Farnsworth, Brian Neyenhuis and Mike Clemens planted several kinds of plants in different soils in the GreenHab. They planted radishes and quinoa (a South American grain high in protein) in 4-inch pots with the following mixtures of soil:

1. All enriched Earth potting soil
2. Earth potting soil at the bottom and "Martian soil" (collected from around the Hab) on the top
3. Martian soil at the bottom and Earth potting soil on top
4. Half-and-half mixture of Earth potting soil and Martian soil
5. All Martian soil

In addition, they planted quinoa, radishes, carrots, lettuce and spinach in Earth potting soil to see how they will do in the GreenHab. They asked MDRS personnel to make sure the plants are watered daily so the soil stays moist throughout. Dr. Allred is planning to bring hyacinths on his next trip to the MDRS.

Dr. Allred said the aquatic plants are looking good*. He was pleased with Crew 24's work in moving toward getting the GreenHab operating as envisioned. He said the heater-fans can be turned off during the day now that the weather is warmer and turned on from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. daily. The switch can be controlled from inside the Hab.

* This is good news and seems to vindicate the proceedure used for packing and shipping, as this material was double-sealed sealed in ziplock bags for six days, packed with PrivatE PreservE^TM, a proprietary mixture of CO2, N & Ar, ('Mars Gas') sold as a wine preserver to keep half-full bottles of vino from oxidizing.

Readings:

Time: 19:08
Inside Temp: 60 F
Outside Temp: 49 F
Relative Humidity: 61%

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Observatory Report:

BYU students Nick Herrick and McKay Salisbury were hoping to get the observatory and telescope operational. While they did not accomplish all their goals, they did manage to clean up the inside of the observatory and get the CCD camera working.

On the Hab side of the system, they rewired the observatory cam and left instructions for operating the observatory cam from the Hab. They said the radio telescope array to the southeast of the GreenHab is wired so that MDRS crews should be able to listen to the signals from the radio telescope and record them on computers or recorders.

Herrick and Salisbury said there are several other BYU astronomy and physics students who have worked with the observatory before, and they expect that all of them will be able to return to the MDRS frequently this year to help and observe.

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Conclusions:

The BYU-MDRS students are eager to work and to learn. Dr. Allred takes his work as a mentor very seriously, encouraging the students' idealism and working closely with them. They can be a vital resource for MDRS volunteers.