A little piece of Logan on Mars

As of 8pm, on the 25th day of May, a little piece of me is now on the planet mars.

For those of you who may not have been following the news, the Phoenix Mars Lander, after traveling 680 million kilometeres executed a picture perfect 7 minute descent through the light atmosphere of mars, fired it's rocket boosters and touched softly down in the high latitude arctic plains.

The mission of the Phoenix is such:

The complement of the Phoenix spacecraft and its scientific instruments are ideally suited to uncover clues to the geologic history and biological potential of the Martian arctic. Phoenix will be the first mission to return data from either polar region providing an important contribution to the overall Mars science strategy "Follow the Water" and will be instrumental in achieving the four science goals of NASA's long-term Mars Exploration Program.

What you may not have known, is that for the summer between my 4th and 5th year at the University of Alberta, I worked with Dr. Carlos Lange, researcher at the UofA, on the Phoenix Mars Lander. It was an experience that changed my life, of that I'm sure. For, before that, I was an engineering student without any engineering experience. After two summers of stacking feed bags at Masterfeeds, and one summer selling vacuum cleaners for Rainbow, I was desperate for something to put on my resume. After an unsuccessful campaign applying with companies I decided one May day to drop by the Mechanical Engineering department. And by chance, I passed by Dr Lange's office and noticed he was in.

I had had only one class before with Dr Lange, Mec E 390, computational methods. The teaching of how to write and use computer codes in order to make life easier and let the computer do the labour of thousands of calculations. I also knew, by the large poster on his door, that Dr Lange had become involved in the Phoenix Mars Lander project. So I decided, that there was no harm in trying and approached Dr. Lange to ask if there was anything, any project I could help him with.

And lucky for me Dr Lange saw something in me and gave me a chance. For, at that point there was nothing that stood out. An average student, with average grades. Even in his own class, Mec E 390 I achieved just average grades. But he said that he could use a helping hand designing some experimental setups he was making to test and validate some of the instrumentation on the Phoenix.

And there it started, my first real engineering job, my first crack at research, my chance to be involved in something that was going to space....that was going to MARS. And most importantly of all, engineering experience.

Because without any work experience:

• Would I have got the IAESTE work exchange to do research in Denmark
• Would I then have gotten a job at Soloy?
• Without the aeronautical experience at Soloy..would I have gotten into my masters at Supaero in France?
• And now to Airbus?

And will having that mention of Phoenix Mars Lander, on my resume be enough some day to get someone to take that crucial double look at my resume and consider me for an Astronaut? I don't know.

All I do know is that I will be watching and reading with a mixture of pride, excitement and wonder as Phoenix explores the Martian landscape and sends back unprecedented data.

The goal is to make the data and images from the Phoenix quickly and pubicly available to all. To follow this incredible robot try these sites:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html

To see a great animation of how the Phoenix performed it's landing
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080525.html

Le Nouvel Appartement

I'm still gathering and organizing the pictures from the Finland/Estonia trip. So until that time, here is some pictures of the new apartment we have.

Some pictures of the new apartment we have in Toulouse. There is three of us living here. Vladimir who was my colleague from the Masters at Supaero and his girlfriend Monica, both of which are from Barcelona.