March 11, 2024, 18:01
Greetings, Imagination 1 crew!

I’m eager to hear about your mission’s first full day … From here on Earth, only 2% of the Moon will appear illuminated this evening, producing a thin waxing crescent. That means that to you, the Earth appears mostly illuminated.

Overnight temperatures here will dip to 46F (7.7C), obviously significantly warmer than the -262F (-163C) highs of Shackleton Crater. I hope you are all warmer tonight.

Please let me know if I can assist you with anything this evening.

Looking up from Earth,
Mikayla Mace Kelley, CapCom

March 11, 2024, 18:07

Pressure: 1.5 inches of water
Lung height: 76 inches with blower at 25.5 Hz
CO2 Lung: holding steady at ~500 ppm
CO2 TM: 2305 ppm
CO2 Eng Bay: 2469 ppm
CO2 Crew Quarters: 2583
Water tank level: 53 gallons
Hydroponics: 6.4 pH, 2.0 EC

Note: Levels of CO2 dropped when we opened the [second] air vent baffle in the CQ. Consistently 2500, then dropping to ~2400, but I can see the increased activity in the areas—cooking, moving things, talking—is increasing the [CO2] gas. The mini-split running [appears to] lower the levels [TBD].

We have had a productive day. Ivy has sewn a pouch for use during the EVAs for us to place materials, such as Julie’s 3D printed aphorism stamp. Testing the 3D printer, Julie successfully made a carabiner for the pouch. Liz continues to spend time in the lung developing choreography, taking film and photos. Chris has been working on the opening section of his article and includes a passage or two below, along with experimenting with multiple exposures of plants and the MiG-29 helmet that Liz and Ivy will use on the EVA.

We have been house-keeping (dishes, vacuuming, etc.) and monitoring systems. As Kai at Mission Control knows, we had a misunderstanding regarding pressure gauge setting and lung height (see below). All working now. Kai provided a physics lesson on Boyle’s Law, which we appreciated. We suspect this is what The Clash had in mind with their song, “I Fought the Law and the Law Won.” Boyle for the gooooaaalllll!

Throughout the day, Chris tries to sprinkle in more Moon information in order to convey the alien wonder of that world as [we] work individually and take our meals collectively. Ivy set a high standard with yesterday’s dinner! We are aiming to make enough at dinner each night to have, as we did today, leftovers at lunch to save time and energy.

We plan on more imagery and video projection tonight when the desert hides in the darkness and we feel more lunar than not –Commander Christopher Cokinos