Choosing the difficult path

Nick Boyd with the rover Curiosity’s “stunt double” on earth at JPL in Pasadena California. Team members use the replica to test commands before sending them via the deep space network to the actual rover currently prowling Mars.

In the pursuit of life on Mars

In recent days NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has begun sending data and images from Gale Crater from a planet spinning about 225 million kilometres away—after a precise yet extremely dangerous landing. In the weeks months, and years to come the car-sized rover will climb nearby mountains and examine the terrain around it. The goal of the mission is to learn, once and for all, if Mars was ever capable of supporting microbial life.

When, or if, they find signs of life on Mars. a County boy will be one of the first to see it. Nick Boyd is one of a very select group of scientists at the centre of the mission, guiding the operation of one of 10 instruments on Curiosity.

Specifically, Nick is overseeing te daily operation of the APXS—a device that bombards targeted rocks and soil on the planet surface with alpha particles and X-rays to measure the geological composition of the material it encounters on its travels.

To do this Boyd resides for the next three months at Jet Propulsion Laboratoiries in Pasadena, California, living on Mars time. A day on Mars is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. To maximize the use of the rover, Boyd and the rest of the team work in shifts that track the Mars day.

This artist’s concept features NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars’s past or present ability to sustain microbial life. The APXS sensor instrumentation is mounted on the array at the end of the rover’s arm. IMAGE: NASA/JPL-CALTECH

“I have to set my alarm at a different time every day,” said Boyd. “After a couple of weeks you can be totally out of sync with Earth.”

At the beginning of each shift, his team receives and analyzes data gathered the previous day. That data is distributed to the geological science team for further examination. Later in the shift his team meets with the larger mission group to figure out what they want Curiosity to look at the next day. Once the APXS part of the plan has been decided upon, it is up to Boyd’s team to make it happen.

“Our job is to write the command sequence to execute the desired measurement and it is then integrated into the entire command sequence driving the rover the next day,” said Boyd.

“For example, based on APXS data, we see this is a brand new type of rock,” explains Boyd. “So we want to hold the rover here and spend some time using all the instruments figuring out what this rock is all about, or conversely we might say ‘we’ve see this rock type before, we think we understand what it’s all about, let’s hit the road and drive to the next interesting place.’”

Nicholas Boyd (left) and Principal Investigator Ralf Gellert, both of the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, prepare for the installation of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer sensor head during testing at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. PHOTO: NASA/JPL-CALTECH

So how is it that this young man from Prince Edward County has found himself at the centre of one of the most important scientific endeavours in a generation?

Six years ago, Boyd had just completed an undergraduate degree in experimental physics at University of Guelph when the renowned scientist Ralf Gellert was attracted to Canada by the university and the Canada Space Agency. Gellert had been the lead scientist since 2003 on this type of sensory instrumentation on two previous Mars rover missions.

He came to work with Professor Iain Campbell, an expert in a technique using several types of particles including alpha and proton particles to measure elemental composition. Boyd happened to be working with Campbell at the time.

“When Ralf Gellert arrived I saw that there was so much work to be done,” said Boyd. “I saw it happening right beside me. I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to operate this instrument on another planet.”

TOUCHDOWN
Six years later, Boyd is staring at a large screen at JPL in California. The knot he feels in his stomach is gripping him tightly now. It is August 6 and the world is riveted to television and computer screens, yearning to learn the fate of the rover Curiosity as it approaches the surface of Mars. Nowhere is the tension as thick as it is in the room in which Boyd is standing, pacing nervously.

“I was in a room with about 300 people who were about to discover whether their job was just starting or just ending,” said Boyd. “In seven minutes we would learn if it all had been for one of the most amazing scientific endeavours our species has ever undertaken, or nothing.”

The landing went perfectly. As did the startup of the rover and it instruments.

SMART PEOPLE
He is thrilled to be working with some of the smartest people in science today.

“They are the ‘who’s who’ of planetary science and space engineering. World experts at what they do. It is a lot of fun to even have a small part in such a high-level advanced endeavour such as this. It could easily be a generation before we see a space science endeavour on this scale again.”

Boyd will lead the tactical operations team for the APXS instrument from California seven days a week on Mars time until October. Then he and his team will make the transition back to Guelph, where a specially equipped facility has been built, and sits waiting for their return.

From Guelph they will continue to perform the same role—but the pace and urgency is expected to subside as routines and patterns set in. Three months after that, the team will move to a five or six-day schedule. Though the mission has a two-year life—Boyd expects Curiosity will continue to prowl Mars, gathering data for several years to come.

Boyd is the son of Glenda and Duane Boyd. They live outside Picton. He went to public school at Sophiasburgh and high school at Prince Edward Collegiate. He acknowledges he was at times a difficult student. Yet he credits both Sophiasburgh and PECI for accommodating him. He says his chemistry and physics teachers Mr. Mee and Mr. Young played an important role in propelling him toward science. It was a direction he was likely already headed.

“I was always predisposed to science—the honesty of science.”

He chose to study physics at Guelph because it was the most difficult-sounding course on the application.

Boyd is married to Allison, daughter of Mike and Liz Lattner of Wellington. The couple doesn’t have kids—not yet.

WHERE TO NEXT?
Boyd gets asked a lot about his future and where his participation in this historic mission will lead. But he isn’t thinking about any of this right now.

“I’ve got this really amazing opportunity,” said Boyd. “I am right in the thick of it. I intend to enjoy it. For now I am focused on ensuring our instrument is working and enjoying the ride.”