Kobie Boykins

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NASA Mechanical Engineer Kobie Boykins Kobie Boykins.png
NASA Mechanical Engineer Kobie Boykins

Kobie Boykins is a senior mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. [1] [2] [3] [4] In 2013, he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. [5] He designed the solar array systems for the Mars exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and designed the actuators on the Mars rover Curiosity. [1] He is currently the supervisor of the mobility and remote sensing teams for Curiosity. [6] In 2003, he was part of NASA's M-Team, which lectured nationally to students regarding careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. [7] He lectures internationally for National Geographic regarding exploration on Mars. [8] [9]

Contents

Personal life

Boykins attended Omaha Northwest High School and lived in Nebraska until college. Boykins then moved to New York to attend college, [10] at B.S Mechanical Engineering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. [11] After Graduation Boykins chose to take a position at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and started working on projects with his selected team. [10] Boykins was offered this opportunity while still studying at R.P.I. After arriving at JPL, Boykins meet Hannah Kim. [11] Boykins and Kim got married and have two children. Boykins loves playing hockey and tries to play the game at least once a week. [10]

Career

After leaving R.P.I Kobie took a career at NASA in their Jet Propulsion Laboratory, working on trips from Mars to planet Earth. [10] Kobie Boykins is a senior mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. [1] [2] [3] [4] Boykins has now been working at NASA for 22 years and enjoys working in the laboratory as of 1996. He worked with his team to design the solar array systems for the Mars exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and designed the actuators on the Mars rover Curiosity, [1] the name of both wings. This system generates power so the Mars Rover can operate while on Mars. Two rechargeable batteries are held inside the Mars Exploration Rover; these batteries are power sources for the rover when the sun is not shining. (especially at night time). The rover can generate about 140 watts of power when fully illuminated and need about 100 watts for motion. The solar array system is attached to the rover and looks almost like wings, although they cannot be used for flight they are crucial for the system to function properly. [12]

Kobe Boykins and his team allowed, the solar array system out lived its projected life expectancy by more than a factor of 20. The Mar rover landed on January 25th 2004 which was only supposed to last approximately 90 days but the rover system is still online and adventuring mars to this day. [13] Boykins then had the opportunity to design the actuators on the Mars rover Curiosity. [1] The system is attached to the updated Mars Rover and is used for many research activities. He also is currently the supervisor of the mobility and remote sensing teams for Curiosity . [14] has also been involved in other projects like, projects like Mars Pathfinder mission and the Ocean Surface Topography Mission. [13] As of 2018 Kobie Boykins is still working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on new projects furthering his search in space

Awards

Kobie Boykins achievements all start in 2002. This is when Boykins joined "Marsapalooza", which is a public education tour hoping to raise awareness of the Mars Exploration Project. The project visited 5 different cities across the country and presented himself as a role model to inspire the next generation of explorers. [15] In 2003, he was part of NASA's M-Team, which lectured nationally to students regarding careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. [7] He lectures internationally for National Geographic regarding exploration on Mars. [16] [9] Boykins then joined another teaching program called the JASONProject Expedition; "Mysteries of Earth and Mars". Boykins joined the team in 2006, lecturing to students and teachers worldwide showing his knowledge in his field. [13] In 2013, he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jet Propulsion Laboratory</span> Research and development center and NASA field center in California, United States

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Caltech researchers, the laboratory is now owned and sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and administered and managed by the California Institute of Technology.

<i>2001 Mars Odyssey</i> NASA orbiter for geology and hydrology

2001 Mars Odyssey is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectrometers and a thermal imager to detect evidence of past or present water and ice, as well as study the planet's geology and radiation environment. The data Odyssey obtains is intended to help answer the question of whether life once existed on Mars and create a risk-assessment of the radiation that future astronauts on Mars might experience. It also acts as a relay for communications between the Curiosity rover, and previously the Mars Exploration Rovers and Phoenix lander, to Earth. The mission was named as a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke, evoking the name of his and Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mars Science Laboratory</span> Robotic mission that deployed the Curiosity rover to Mars in 2012

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The overall objectives include investigating Mars' habitability, studying its climate and geology, and collecting data for a human mission to Mars. The rover carries a variety of scientific instruments designed by an international team.

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Peter C. Theisinger was the director of the Engineering and Science Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and was the project manager of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission and later project manager for the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transit of Deimos from Mars</span> Transit of a Moon of Mars

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Elachi</span> Lebanese electrical engineer, JPL director

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fuk Li</span>

Fuk K. Li is the Director of the Mars Exploration Directorate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Tsou</span>

"Astrobiology of Icy Worlds". astrobiology.nasa.gov. December 2014. Archived from the original on 2024-05-16. Retrieved 2024-05-16.

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The embedded computer systems onboard Mars rovers are designed to withstand high radiation levels and large temperature changes in space. For this reason their computational resources are limited compared to systems commonly used on Earth.

<i>Curiosity</i> (rover) NASA robotic rover exploring Gale crater on Mars

Curiosity is a car-sized Mars rover exploring Gale crater and Mount Sharp on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral (CCAFS) on November 26, 2011, at 15:02:00 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17:57 UTC. The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 560 million km (350 million mi) journey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Steltzner</span> American aerospace engineer

Adam Diedrich Steltzner is an American NASA engineer who works for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He worked on several flight projects including Galileo, Cassini, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). He was the lead engineer of the Mars Science Laboratory's EDL phase, and helped design, build and test the sky crane landing system.

Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, is a Ghanaian robotics engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the chief engineer and technical group leader for the mobility and manipulation group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory He has been associated with various NASA Mars missions, notably the Mars Rover and InSight projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan G. Finley</span> Software engineer

Susan G. Finley, a native Californian, has been an employee of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) since January 1958, making her the longest-serving woman in NASA. Two days before Explorer 1 was launched, Finley began her career with the laboratory as a human computer, calculating rocket launch trajectories by hand. She now serves as a subsystem engineer for NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). At JPL, she has participated in the exploration of the Moon, the Sun, all the planets, and other bodies in the Solar System.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Harris Trosper</span> American aerospace engineer

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Gerdes, Caroline (May 4, 2015). "Explore Mars with JPL engineer Kobie Boykins – National Geographic Society (blogs)". Voices.nationalgeographic.com. Archived from the original on October 3, 2015. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Kobie Boykins. "Kobie Boykins's Martian Profile". Mars.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "JASON Expedition: 'Mysteries of Earth and Mars':Jet Propulsion Laboratory". The My Hero Project . August 16, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  4. 1 2 "NASA - Celebrate Black History Month Virtually: Ask Questions of NASA Engineers". Nasa.gov. February 12, 2010. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Exceptional Achievement M". Yumpu.com. July 23, 2013. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  6. ↑ "National Geographic Live! Exploring Mars with NASA Engineer Kobie Boykins - April 27 - Minnesota Public Radio's Fitzgerald Theater". Fitzgeraldtheater.publicradio.org. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  7. 1 2 NASA.gov
  8. ↑ "National Geographic Events - Kobie Boykins". Events.nationalgeographic.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2015. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Kobie Boykins". www.ntu.edu.sg. Archived from the original on August 1, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  10. 1 2 3 4 mars.nasa.gov. "Mars planet facts news & images | NASA Mars rover + mission info". mars.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  11. 1 2 "Kobie Boykins". www.facebook.com. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Mars Exploration Rover Mission: The Mission". mars.nasa.gov. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  13. 1 2 3 "Events | Nat Geo - Events". events.nationalgeographic.com. Retrieved April 16, 2018.[ dead link ]
  14. ↑ "National Geographic Live! Exploring Mars with NASA Engineer Kobie Boykins - April 27 - Minnesota Public Radio's Fitzgerald Theater". Fitzgeraldtheater.publicradio.org. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  15. ↑ "NASA - What in the world is Marsapalooza?". www.nasa.gov. Gretchen Cook-Anderson: HQ. Retrieved April 16, 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  16. ↑ "National Geographic Events - Kobie Boykins". Events.nationalgeographic.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2015. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Exceptional Achievement M". Yumpu.com. July 23, 2013. Retrieved November 29, 2016.

NASA Jet Propulsion Lab: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

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