Science disclaimer: Please remember this is from my point of view, through my memory. To find out more about this Check out the University of Florida's, Space Biology program or the Arthur C. Clark Green house on line.
OK so it's not that big of a deal but I've been wanting to use that line since I signed up for this job!
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| Protecting the Green House From the Sun? |
The green house is in crisis. It’s unusually warm this week maybe even record breaking. The plants in the green house are suppose to stay at 30 Celsius or lower. Yesterday they recorded a temp of 35. Actually their co-workers monitoring the green house in Florida call to alert them. Anna-Lisa and Rob are creating a shade structure over the green house to prevent withering and burning. If this was your garden you probably would have given the plants more water but that would destroy the experiments. Everything in the green house is automated and works without human physical intervention. During the spring and summer the plants are tended by robots. Once the winter sets in the house shuts down and in spring the robots plant new seeds and tend them. All of this is watched by Rob and Ana-Lisa by a camera that sends images to the University of Florida. In the green house is a duplicate of the hardware and robotics that went to the Space Station and preformed planting experiments.
Some of the Arctic plantings duplicate the testing done on the Space station.Lter this season these experiments will be stopped. They have been completed! The Canadian Space Agency will be arriving to dismantle the inside of the greenhouse. Other projects, yet to be determined, will take there place.
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| Veggies never touched by humans! |
Other problems arise today the incinerator in which we burn all our trash doesn’t work. Pascal and Jesse are needed to confer with John and come up with a solution.
The second attempt at the internet has failed. Parts are on order and should be here by Sunday.
At mid-day we begin to worry about Pascal and his group. They left a day and a half ago on a 2-3 day trip and have only made it about 1/3 of the way. I’m told they are not only bringing the Humvee home but also running the traverse as an experiment. They are using only navigation by the satellite photos. Simulating the lack of detail that a mars or moon rover would encounter.
On the positive side I’m starting to learn much more about the research being done here. The robotic arm is working. On earth this arm will be used to help aviation experts determine if the soil in a particle area is appropriate for use as an airstrip. It has a jack hammer like attachment which can take relatively deep earth samples.
Kira is going to be putting some sort of sensor into the ground to determine the levels of CO 2 in the perma frost.
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