Kobie Boykins Laboratory, working on trips from Mars to planet Earth. Kobie Boykins is a senior mechanical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. 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," 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
Mars Exploration Rover one Martian year anniversary (669 sols or 687 Earth days) on November 20, 2005. "Opportunity" celebrated its anniversary on December 12, 2005. At the beginning of the mission, it was expected that the rovers would not survive much longer than 90 Martian days. The Columbia Hills were "just a dream", according to rover driver Chris Leger. "Spirit" explored the semicircular rock formation known as Home Plate. It is a layered rock outcrop that puzzles and excites scientists. It is thought that its rocks are explosive volcanic deposits, though other possibilities exist, including impact deposits or sediment borne by wind or