Now I'm better, and back to work. I'm working the second shift this week so we can finish all the FVTs. We haven't had to run these in about 6 months. They were designed to test all the functionality of each instrument. We ran these tests each time a new version of Flight Software (FSW) came out. Now that the spacecraft is on its way, the FSW version is pretty much fixed. But each instrument has an executable that contains its specific code. These were recently updated, and we're testing them before they get transfered to Phoenix.

As I type, I'm monitoring one of the MECA tests. It's about 4 or 5 hours long, typical of the FVTs. It takes almost the whole week, running a second shift, to get through all the tests. This test checks the MECA Stage; basically a plate with dimples around the edge, in which a soil sample sits. The plate can rotate and translate, bringing the sample to the Atomic Force Microscope or the Optical Microscope.

MECA is easily the most complicated instrument, if by nothing else the sheer number of commands and telemetry.