Volatile Analysis of Polar Regolith (VAPoR) Sample Manipulation System (SMS)

As the project manager and systems engineer for the Volatile Analysis of Polar Regolith (VAPoR) project, I worked with a team at Goddard Space Flight Center to design a smaller version of the Mars Science Laboratory’s Sample Manipulation System (SMS) for lunar exploration by an astronaut vs. Martian exploration by a rover. The challenge here was to design, fabricate, assemble, and test a working proof of concept model on a very small budget. Just before leaving Honeybee, I had successfully planned out a four year schedule that, with the help of some off the shelf components and minimal controls, enabled them to complete the project on time and under budget.