diff --git a/.devcontainer/Dockerfile b/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
index 0ab6d38f..3483135c 100644
--- a/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
+++ b/.devcontainer/Dockerfile
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 FROM mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/miniconda:0-3
 
+# commenting out mamba install, is given an error, see: 
+# https://github.com/conda/conda-libmamba-solver/issues/540
 RUN conda install -n base -c conda-forge mamba
 
 # Copy environment.yml (if found) to a temp location so we update the environment. Also
 # copy "noop.txt" so the COPY instruction does not fail if no environment.yml exists.
-RUN conda install -n base -c conda-forge mamba
 COPY environment.yml* .devcontainer/noop.txt /tmp/conda-tmp/
 RUN if [ -f "/tmp/conda-tmp/environment.yml" ]; then umask 0002 && /opt/conda/bin/mamba env create -f /tmp/conda-tmp/environment.yml; fi \
     && rm -rf /tmp/conda-tmp
diff --git a/.github/workflows/python-package.yml b/.github/workflows/python-package.yml
index d79c140f..a2340182 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/python-package.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/python-package.yml
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
         os: [ubuntu-22.04, ubuntu-latest, windows-latest]
-        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11", "3.12"]
+        python-version: ["3.10", "3.11", "3.12"]
         build-method: ["manual", "docker"]
 
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
diff --git a/hsds/basenode.py b/hsds/basenode.py
index f3356f34..cb3db7de 100644
--- a/hsds/basenode.py
+++ b/hsds/basenode.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 from .util.k8sClient import getDnLabelSelector, getPodIps
 from . import hsds_logger as log
 
-HSDS_VERSION = "0.9.2"
+HSDS_VERSION = "0.9.3"
 
 
 def getVersion():
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index e0b6a58b..fdb1aaba 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -30,8 +30,8 @@ classifiers = [
     "Topic :: Database",
     "Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules",
 ]
-requires-python = ">=3.8"
-version = "0.9.2"
+requires-python = ">=3.10"
+version = "0.9.3"
 
 dependencies = [
     "aiohttp == 3.9.4",