Q:
How
about
drilling
operations to collect
the samples for SAM?
Kim: Yes. It’s part of my job
planning for drilling such as at
John Klein and Cumberland.
We have to plan one day
at a time if that’s going to
happen. We might discover
something on the downlink
that would push that off or
move it.
the best science from the
instrument, we’ve left it so
that it’s very tweakable.
Actually we run scripts on this.
It’s actually more like code.
It’s writing a program each
time we want to do any
analysis with it. The code itself
turns on heaters, can pump
out the instrument. It’s kind of
infinitely customizable.
We’ll be busy over the
rest of the prime mission.
Goddard has a test version of
SAM that they have set up in
a thermal vacuum chamber.
They run all their scripts on
that ahead of time to make
sure that all the limits are set
correctly and that the script is
safe to run on the surface. But
you can’t model everything.
Sometimes things work a little
dif ferently on the surface
than they do on the test pad
at Goddard.
Photo: Brenden Clark
SAM related that we want to
test before it goes up onto
the Rover.
Q:
When
does
your
responsibly begin with
the drill sample?
Kim: It starts with using SAM
to analyze the drill samples.
We have a team of people
called rover planners who
are the ones that conduct all
the mobility, all the sampling
and also the drop-off to the
SAM instrument.
There’s a handshaking
that has to happen between
the sample and the SAM
instrument.
Q:
Q:
Kim now works as the engineer for the MSL SAM instrument.
How has SAM operated so
far at the sites examined so
far, for example Rocknest and John
Klein? What’s your assessment?
Kim: Fantastically. In terms of how
the instrument has worked on the
engineering level, SAM is absolutely
amazing. It is such a complicated
instrument. It’s actually three
instruments in one. In order to get
I guess to finish up,
please tell me how
happy or proud are you to
work on this mission?
Kim: Oh my goodness. I
can’t even put any words to that
adequately. I am thrilled. I am so
happy and so proud to be working
on this mission. There’s really nothing
else I’d rather be doing.
Curiosity looks back eastward to ‘Dingo Gap’ sand dune inside Gale Crater. After crossing over the dune on Feb. 9, 2014 the rover drove
Image: NASA/JPL/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo
into the ‘Moonlight Valley’. The parallel rover wheel tracks are 9 feet (2.7 meters) apart.