Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Winter 2008 | Page 24

Academy

Thornton

Spotlight

From the Earth to Mars
Robert Bovill ‘98 Tests Spacecraft Headed for the Red Planet
Although he enthusiastically signed up for every science and
math class while attending Thornton Academy, Robert Bovill ’98
would never have guessed that one day he’d be part of a space
mission to Mars.
“I didn’t have any idea. Being an astronaut wasn’t the aim
when I was growing up like it is for some kids,” he says. “I may
not have had a clear-cut idea of what I wanted to do, but I was
always really interested in science and space exploration.”
Now a test engineer for the Phoenix Mars Mission, Bovill
recalls having the “unique opportunity” to take astronomy with
science teacher Al Roper and getting to visit TA’s observatory
on a few occasions. After graduation, he went on to obtain a
bachelor’s of science in physics from the University of Maine
and—before being recruited two years ago for his current job—
Bovill attended the University of Arizona and studied physics at
the graduate level.
Submitted photo
The Phoenix is the only spacecraft that has been sent to the
Robert Bovill ‘98 is currently
planet’s northern arctic plains. Its mission is two-fold: to study
living in Arizona and working on
the history of water on the red planet and to search for evidence
the Phoenix Mars Mission as a
of complex organic molecules in its ice-rich soil. This may reveal
whether the site was ever
test engineer.
hospitable to life.
The multi-agency project
is headed by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at University
of Ariz ona, where Bovill works, and it’s directed by NASA as
the first in its Mars Scout Missions. The Phoenix launched last
August and is scheduled to land on May 25.
Bovill’s work involves testing a variety of instruments on
the spacecraft, including a robotic arm capable of digging a
hole three feet deep. Other instruments include a microscope
that can reveal features as small as one one-thousandth the
width of a human hair and a weather station that studies the
surrounding environment.
While he misses family and friends back in Maine and
See Spotlight on page 23

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Postscripts

Winter 2008 * Vol. 43, No. 1

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