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Maine to Mars Blog Index
July 29, 2008
Motivation, it's a funny thing

How long has it been since I posted an update? So long, I'm actually scared to look. And I don't really have an excuse. I certainly haven't been too busy.

Not that the mission isn't doing great things. But there just hasn't been much testing. An occasional SoftSim run, some targeting with the RA in preparation for a delivery, and that's about it. But it seems the more time I have, the less I actually do.

But what has Phoenix been up to lately. We've been trying like the dickens to get an ice sample into TEGA. Having worked around some operational problems with TEGA itself, we finally attempted a sample acquisition/delivery late last week. We got the sample, but it froze to the back of scoop! So we tired again the other day, and guess what, it stuck to the back of the scoop again!

I'll let you know when we figure out how to get a sample into a science instrument.

Posted at 07:35 PM

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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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