http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ en-us rbovill@lpl.arizona.edu 2008-06-12T15:31:32-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/028786.html Landing was a huge success. The first pictures from Mars were amazing! And they continue to be so. We've seen Mars as no one before, landing in the Martian Arctic for the first time. We've seen Mars at the microscopic... 28786@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ Surface Operations 2008-06-12T15:31:32-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/027765.html This shows a color image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. It shows the Phoenix lander with its solar panels deployed on the Mars surface. The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of... 27765@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ Landing 2008-05-27T17:42:47-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/027147.html T-minus 3 days. That's all the time that is left until we land. Management put a stop to all testing this week, so we were been busy running simulations and tests on the hardware all last week.... 27147@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ Landing 2008-05-22T14:30:00-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/025786.html Landing day is 29 days away as I type this message. Where there is a rush to get that last test in, to check off that last validation box and verify that last piece of code, this is also the... 25786@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ Daily Life 2008-04-22T08:14:40-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/024274.html Ahh, back from vacation and what is my thanks? That's right, the 4-12 shift. With only four people working in the PIT, one of whom is the boss (so he's not going to work the late shift!) we don't have... 24274@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ Daily Life 2008-03-25T21:33:10-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/023553.html As I mentioned in the last post, next week is a sort of mini-ORT. It'll last more than a week, but it's (supposedly) not 24 hours a day. This uber-test will run through the first 7 days on Mars, and... 23553@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ ORTs 2008-03-13T11:45:56-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/023551.html 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.... 23551@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ Daily Life 2008-03-10T11:30:59-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/022467.html Last time I mentioned the MECA Wet Chemistry test that we did during the ORT. Due to a hardware issue, MECA could not be configured to receive the sample. Unfortunately, MECA did not perform any wet chem experiments during this... 22467@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ Daily Life 2008-02-18T13:17:48-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/021386.html This ORT has been going amazingly well so far. The science days are going off without a hitch. The days haven't been very intense for the most part, mostly standard SSI imaging, and weather measurements during morning, noon and night.... 21386@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ ORTs 2008-01-29T03:20:34-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/021260.html Well, it's 1 a.m. (3 a.m. Maine time), and ORT 8 is off and running. Thursday was a training day, so the science day is pretty light. This test starts off on Sol 20, meaning the 20th "day" on... 21260@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ ORTs 2008-01-25T03:10:22-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/020866.html 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... 20866@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ FVTs 2008-01-15T21:47:23-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/020279.html I just wanted to check in with everyone, before it got any later. I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile. I took vacation over the holidays which makes it hard enough to communicate. Then last week my grandfather passed... 20279@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ Personal Life 2008-01-02T11:14:46-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/019379.html Hello from ORT7. We are well into this training, and things are, as always, quite interesting. This test started with EDL, so the action started at JPL with separation of the cruise stage all the way to the surface. With... 19379@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ ORTs 2007-12-07T03:00:56-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/019032.html ORT 7 is less than a week away, and preparations are under way. This exercise will cover EDL, Entry, Descent and Landing, plus the first three Sols, or days, on Mars. Most of the blocks we have been testing are... 19032@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ ORTs 2007-11-28T11:54:35-05:00 http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/018732.html Well, it took a little time for the TEGA to analyze the data from the bakeout, but I finally got word. Another 10 percent of water was cooked away from inside the ovens. We're scheduled to run yet another bakeout... 18732@http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/blogs/marsmission/ Daily Life 2007-11-26T09:41:52-05:00