Eden Phillpotts: The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

Today I occupied myself with the task of cleaning the Mars Desert Research Station Science Laboratory. It did not look like a lot of work at first but as soon as I started I knew if would be an all day project. I first cleaned all the counters in the lab and wiped down all the scientific instrumentation. I then took all the specimens out of the large glovebox near the aft airlock in a secured container for one of their representatives to come and retrieve it.

I then checked our battery situation in which over 399 batteries were marked as "Dead". I could not believe all those batteries were dead so I checked each and every one of them which took about 30 minutes to do, Only about 50 of them were not good. So, I finished organizing the remaining areas of the lab.

We are in need of more biosuits. There are currently 4 suits available but without helmets. We are in need of latex gloves and general office supplies as well. The geologic equipment that I had used during my last rotation were no longer there so I will have to improvise on what to use when I go out in the field next.

The MDRS Science Laboratory has changed drastically since I was here last. It is my recommendation that a clean room be placed in the MDRS to reduce the amount of atmospheric aerosols within the Hab. This is something that I have been promoting for the past several years unto which certain MDRS veterans who are scientists, back this up. This would be a small project in which there will only be a need for an enclosed area between the airlock and the Science Lab. There will also be the need for a receptacle to transfer samples collected from field investigations from the airlock to the Science Laboratory without the chance of contaminating the Hab and the Crew Members inside. This will also determine how many samples to bring back to the Hab and whether or not they would be worth testing further once the EVA is over and the martian astronauts return to the Hab.