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Maine to Mars Blog Index
March 10, 2008
It's All in the Details

What a crazy couple of weeks it's been around here. We have been running all sorts of tests, practically day and night. Most of the instrument flight software has been updated, so we had to run all the FVTs again. However, we have a characterization test coming up next week, so we've also had to test all the sequences for this mini-ORT. Oh yeah, and the characterization test does not use the updated FSW (flight software). It's not an overly painful process to switch out the FSW, but it's one more detail to keep track of, and one that would invalidate a test if run using the wrong code.

Posted at 11:30 AM

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A native Mainer writes about his experiences as an engineer for the Phoenix Mars Mission, an effort to see if a robotic lander can find evidence that life once existed on Mars.

Robert Bovill was born at Maine Medical Center July 5, 1979. He graduated from Thornton Academy in 1998. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Maine in Orono, and then went to the University of Arizona for graduate school. He was employed full-time as a test engineer for this Phoenix Mars Mission a year and a half ago by the University of Arizona.



See a rendering of the Phoenix Mars lander during the final seconds of descent.

See the instruments on the Phoenix Mars lander.

Abbreviation Glossary
Testing  
FVT   Functional Verification Test
GDS   Ground Data System
OPUS Odyssey/Phoenix UHF System
ORT Operational Readiness Test/Training
PIT    Payload Inter-operability Testbed
PTL Payload Testbed Lab
PVV Payload Verification and Validation
   
Places  
JPL  Jet Propulsion Laboratory
LM  Lockheed-Martin
UA/LPL University of Arizona/Lunar and Planetary Lab
   
Events
EDL  Entry, Descent and Landing
   
Instruments
EM  Enginerring Model
FM Flight Model
ISAD Icy Sample Acquisition Device
MECA Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer
OM Optical Microscope
RA Robotic Arm
RAC Robotic Arm Camera
RASP Rapid Active Sampling Package
SSI    Surface Stereoscopic Imager
TECP   Thermal and Electrical Conductivity Probe
TEGA  Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer
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