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Robert Williams is a senior mechanical design engineer and the structures subject matter expert in the Engineering and Test Directorate at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.NASA/Danny Nowlin Living up to, and maintaining, the standard of excellence associated with NASA is what drives Robert Williams at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
A native of Gulfport, Mississippi, Williams said he has had the opportunity to work with and be mentored by “some truly exceptional” engineers, some with careers reaching back to the Apollo era.
“I cannot overstate the vast amount of practical knowledge and experience we have at NASA Stennis,” Williams said. “We know how to get things done, and if we do not know, I can guarantee we will figure it out.”
Williams is a senior mechanical design engineer and the structures subject matter expert for the NASA Stennis Engineering and Test Directorate.
He provides technical oversight related to engineering mechanics and machine design by reviewing analysis and design packages from NASA Stennis contractors and NASA engineers for ongoing projects.
Williams also supports projects by performing analysis and creating detailed models, drawings, and system level designs, mostly at the versatile four-stand E Test Complex, where NASA Stennis has 12 active test cells capable of various component, engine, and stage test activities to support the agency and commercial companies.
In support of NASA’s Artemis campaign of returning astronauts to the Moon, Williams also has reviewed structural and pipe stress analysis for the exploration upper stage project that will test a new SLS (Space Launch System) rocket stage to fly on future Artemis missions.
He performed similar review work for Green Run testing of the SLS core stage at NASA Stennis ahead of the successful launch of the Artemis I uncrewed mission around the Moon.
Overall, Williams has been a part of projects on every test stand throughout more than eight years with NASA and five years as a contractor. He has been tasked with solving challenging problems, both individually and as a part of teams.
There were times when he was not sure if he or the team would be able to solve the problem or address it effectively, but each time, the NASA Stennis team found a way.
“Over the span of my career, I have yet to be in a situation where the challenge was not met,” he said.
The opportunity to work with “pretty much all the major space companies in some capacity” is most interesting to Williams. “The best thing is that being a small organization within a relatively small center, there are always opportunities to develop new skills and capabilities to help fill a need or gap,” he said.
No matter the task, Williams looks forward to supporting space innovation while living up to, and maintaining, the standard of excellence associated with NASA for the benefit of all.
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Curiosity Navigation Curiosity Home Mission Overview Where is Curiosity? Mission Updates Science Overview Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Curiosity Raw Images Images Videos Audio Mosaics More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Mars Home 3 min read
Sols 4525-4526: The Day After Groundhog Day (Between Ghost Mountain and Texoli, Headed South)
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image showing ChemCam/Mastcam targets “Breeze Hill” and “Laguna Mountain,” together with a rover wheel planted firmly on the Martian surface. Curiosity captured the image using its Left Navigation Camera on April 27, 2025 — Sol 4523, or Martian day 4,523 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 13:23:32 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Earth planning date: Monday, April 28, 2025
Curiosity is back on the road! For sols 4525 and 4526, we have an isolated nominal plan in which the communication pass timing works out in such a way that the rover can fit in fully targeted science blocks on both sols rather than just the first sol. So in this power-hungry Martian winter season, we’re in a good position to take advantage of the power saved up during the missed uplink.
The weekend drive went well and delivered the rover into a stable, arm-work-compatible position in a workspace with rock targets that we could brush with the DRT. Happy days! The DRT/APXS/MAHLI measurements will bring us geochemical and rock texture data from local bedrock blocks “Bradshaw Trail” and “Sweetwater River.” Further geochemical information will come from the ChemCam LIBS rasters on a more coarsely layered target, “Breeze Hill,” and an exposed layer expressing both polygonal features and a vein or coating of dark-toned material, “Laguna Mountain.”
Long-distance imaging with the ChemCam RMI included a mosaic to add to our coverage of the boxwork sedimentary features of the type Curiosity will soon be exploring in situ. A second RMI mosaic was planned to cover a truncated sedimentary horizon on the Texoli butte that may provide further evidence of ancient aeolian scouring events. Meanwhile, the “Morrell Potrero” Mastcam mosaic will provide some detail on the base of the boxwork-bearing “Ghost Mountain” butte and on a ridge nearby. In the drive direction, the “Garnet Peak” mosaic will capture some potentially new rock textures and colors in the upcoming strata.
Nearer-field imaging in the plan includes Mastcam documentation of some troughs that provide evidence for sand and dust movement in response to the modern aeolian environment. Additionally Mastcam mosaics went to “Breeze Hill” (covering the LIBS target) and “Live Oak” to document variations in bedding, color, and texture in the nearby bedrock.
A few observations of the modern environment were scheduled for the afternoon: a phase function sky survey to look for scattered light from thin water-ice clouds and a separate set of cloud altitude observations.
Finally, a Mastcam documentation image was planned for the AEGIS LIBS target from the weekend plan! This reflects an update to the rover’s capability in which the AEGIS target can be determined and downlinked in time for the decisional downlink pass, so that we know where to look for it during the next planning cycle.
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Last Updated Apr 30, 2025 Related Terms
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Sols 4522-4524: Up on the Roof
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of target “Hale Telescope” (the layered rock left of center) using its Left Navigation Camera on April 23, 2025 — Sol 4519, or Martian day 4,519 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission — at 09:53:56 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Deborah Padgett, OPGS Task Lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Earth planning date: Friday, April 25, 2025
On Sols 4520 and 4521, Curiosity was supposed to study layered rocks in its workspace, then drive on. Unfortunately, a communications pass didn’t go as expected, preventing this plan from being transmitted. Our rover is fine, but it has been metaphorically “twiddling its thumbs” waiting for the expected Wednesday contact from Earth. This is a process known as “runout,” which happens when Earth fails to call a spacecraft at the appointed time. The communications stations are back up now, so the team assembled a weekend plan made from Wednesday’s postponed activities plus an extra day of untargeted science observations after the drive. The additional two days prior to plan execution allowed our science team to add another interesting target to contact science at the starting location.
On Sol 4522, Curiosity will start science observations with a Mastcam 14 x 3 mosaic on the new target “Mesa Peak,” a flat-topped, layered outcrop named for a mountain in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California covered with sandstone pinnacles and offering an ocean view toward Channel Islands National Park. This will be followed by two Mastcam examinations of troughs to document evidence of differential ground motion. ChemCam will then shine its laser on the “Fan Palm” nodular rock to determine its surface composition. Its telescopic RMI camera will then image distant “Torote Bowl.” After a set of REMS observations, Curiosity will un-stow its arm and begin a detailed study of “Hale Telescope,” a finely layered stone with a target name honoring the famous 200-inch telescope (5.1 meters) on Palomar Mountain, northeast of San Diego.
Despite being close to 80 years old, Palomar Observatory’s Hale Telescope still enables world-class astronomy with teams from Caltech and its partner organizations competing for observing time every year. Here, 5,500 feet “up on the roof” (thank you, Carole King!) of Southern California is where I spent some of my happiest times in graduate school.
Curiosity’s arm will first deploy the APXS to touch “Hale Telescope.” Then, the MAHLI microscopic imager will take extreme close-up pictures of this rock and the neighboring “Cerro Alto” target. Finally, APXS will measure the composition of “Hale Telescope” in a measurement lasting two hours, similar to the exposure time required for the actual 200-inch telescope to measure the redshift of quasars, determining that they were located at cosmological distances. Sol 4522 ends with Curiosity stowing its arm in preparation for the next sol’s drive.
On 4523, Curiosity will perform Mastcam mosaics of “Puerto Suelo” and “Potrero Seco,” as well as companion observation of the ChemCam target “Fan Palm” and an AEGIS-selected target from Sol 4919. ChemCam will then use laser spectroscopy to obtain surface composition of “Mesa Peak” and train the RMI telescope on intriguing formations along the side of Texoli Butte. Mastcam will follow up with an “after the laser zap” picture of “Mesa Peak.” The science block ends with a Navcam 360-degree dust-devil survey. Afterwards, Curiosity will drive around 20 meters (about 66 feet), passing near or over some large rocks, followed by post-drive imaging with the Hazcams, Navcam, and Mastcam. Afterwards, the rover will do AEGIS observations and take a MARDI picture of the ground underneath the rover.
On Sol 4524, the science block will focus on the atmosphere, with a super horizon cloud movie, a dust-devil survey, and Mastcam dust opacity observation. There will also be ChemCam laser spectroscopy of a target selected by AEGIS.
Early on the morning of Sol 4525, Curiosity will wake to take a morning-light mosaic of the “boxwork” formations to the west with Navcam, then turn Navcam toward the sky for suprahorizon and zenith cloud movies and a dust opacity observation across Gale Crater. Mastcam will then perform its own dust observation, which will wrap up the plan. If the team finds that Curiosity’s wheels are firmly seated on Martian soil and not rocks, our rover will again do contact science on a new set of rocks and continue its journey toward the boxwork formation.
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Sols 4520-4521: Prinzregententorte
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image of its target area — including the layered rocks “Hale Telescope” and “Fan Palm” — using its Front Hazard Avoidance Camera on April 22, 2025 (Sol 4518, or Martian day 4,518 of the Mars Science Laboratory mission) at 11:03:37 UTC. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Scott VanBommel, Planetary Scientist at Washington University
Earth planning date: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
I will start this blog with an apology, an apology because I suspect, by the end of this post, you, the reader, may have a craving for chocolate, or cake, or both. While we saw hints of it in the previous workspace, as captured by Susanne’s blog, today’s workspace featured prominent laminations throughout Curiosity’s sightlines, which presented the science team with the challenge of finding a safe place to utilize APXS (and MAHLI). Perhaps it was because of Easter last weekend, perhaps I needed an early lunch — whatever the cause, I could not shake the visual parallels between the rocks in our workspace, as captured in this blog’s image, and a many-layered-cake such as a Prinzregententorte.
The rover planners rose to the technical challenge, as they always do, and were ultimately able to find a safe area to place APXS on the top of the rock that is prominent just above and left of the center of today’s image. Combined with a green-light from SRAP, Curiosity now had its (cakey) target and could APXS it too.
Tosol’s APXS and MAHLI target, “Hale Telescope,” is named after the famous landmark located north-northwest of San Diego, California. I, for one, was not familiar with the history of this landmark, including how groundbreaking it was at the time of its development and commissioning through the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s.
Curiosity’s plan tosol started with APXS and MAHLI of Hale Telescope. These activities were complemented by Mastcam images of “Puerto Suelo” and “Potrero Seco,” as well as long-distance imaging by ChemCam of “Torote Bowl,” nearly 1 kilometer (about 0.6 miles) away. Curiosity also imaged and conducted compositional analyses of the layered target “Fan Palm,” slightly offset from Hale Telescope, with LIBS. Our intrepid rover then completed a drive of about 23 meters (about 75 feet) in preparation for the three-sol weekend plan.
On the second sol of the current plan, Curiosity acquired Navcam images and a suprahorizon movie. The highlight of the second sol, however, arguably was an upgraded version of the AEGIS (Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) activity where the rover will autonomously determine its own target to analyze with ChemCam while awaiting further instructions from Earth. The software upgrade will allow Curiosity’s team to know what target the rover chose to observe in time for us to make the weekend plan, even though the observation itself won’t happen on Mars until later.
Mars continues to offer stories written in stone, and like all good stories, the richness lies in the voices layered within. Or chocolate. The data aren’t down yet.
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Sols 4518-4519: Thumbs up from Mars
This image was taken by Front Hazard Avoidance Camera (Front Hazcam) onboard NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 4516. NASA/JPL-Caltech Written by Susanne Schwenzer, Planetary Geologist at The Open University
Earth planning date: Monday, 21st April 2025
It is Easter Monday, a bank holiday here in the United Kingdom. I am Science Operations Working Group Chair today, a role that is mainly focused on coordinating all the different planning activities on a given day, and ensuring all the numbers are communicated to everyone. And with that I mean making sure that everyone knows how much power we have and other housekeeping details. It’s a fun role, but on the more technical side of the mission, which means I don’t get to look at the rocks in the workspace as closely as my colleagues who are planning the activities of the instruments directly investigating the rocks. It’s a lot of fun to see how planning day after planning day things come together. But why am I doing this on a bank holiday, when I could well be on my sofa? I just was reminded in the hours before planning how much fun it actually is to spend a little more time looking at all the images – and not the usual hectic rush coming out of an almost complete work day (we start at 8 am PDT, which is 4 pm here in the UK!). So, I enjoyed the views of Mars, and I think Mars gave me a thumbs up for it, or better to say a little pointy ‘rock up’ in the middle of a sandy area, as you can see in the image above!
I am sure you noticed that our team has a lot to celebrate! Less than a month after the publication about alkanes made headlines in many news outlets, we have another big discovery from our rover, now 4518 sols on Mars: in three drill holes, the rover instruments detected the mineral siderite, a carbonate. That allowed a group of scientists from our team to piece together the carbon cycle of Mars. If you want to know more, the full story is here. I am looking forward to our next big discovery. Who knows that that is? Well, it would not be exploration, if we knew!
But today’s workspace looks intriguing with all its little laminae (the very fine layers) and its weathering patterns that look like a layered cake that little fingers have picked the icing off! (Maybe I had too many treats of the season this weekend? That’s for you to decide!) But then Mars did what it did so many times lately: we did not pass our slip risk assessment and therefore had to keep the arm stowed. I think there is a direct link between geologists getting exciting about all the many rocks, and a wheel ending up on one of them, making it unsafe to unstow the arm. There was a collective sigh of disappointment – and then we moved on to what we actually can do.
And that is a lot of imaging. As exciting as getting an APXS measurement and MAHLI images would be, Mastcam images, ChemCam chemistry and RMI images are exciting, too. The plan starts with three Mastcam activities to document the small troughs that form around some of the rocks. Those amount to 15 frames already, then we have a ten-frame mosaic on a target called “West Fork,” which is looking at rocks in the middle ground of the scenery and display interesting layering. Finally, a 84 frame mosaic will image Texoli, one of the large buttes in our neighbourhood, in all its beauty. It shows a series of interesting layers and structures, including some that might be akin to what we expect the boxwork structures to look like. Now, did you keep count? Yes, that’s 109 frames from Mastcam – and add the one for the documentation of the LIBS target, too, and Mastcam takes exactly 110 frames!
ChemCam is busy with a target called “Lake Poway,” which represents the bedrock around us. Also in the ChemCam activities is a long distance RMI upwards Mt Sharp to the Yardang unit. After the drive – more of that later – ChemCam as an automated observation, we call it AEGIS, where ChemCam uses a clever algorithm to pick its own target.
The drive will be very special today. As you may have seen, we are imaging our wheels in regular intervals to make sure that we are keeping track of the wear and tear that over 34 km of offroad driving on Mars have caused. For that, we need a very flat area and our rover drivers did locate one due West of the current rover positions. So, that’s where we will drive first, do the full MAHLI wheel imaging and then return to the originally planned path. That’s where we’ll do a MARDI image, post drive imaging to prepare the planning for the next sols, and the above mentioned AEGIS.
In addition to all the geologic investigations, there is continuous environmental monitoring ongoing. Curiosity will look at opacity and dust devils, and REMS will switch on regularly to measure wind speeds, humidity, temperature, ultraviolet radiation and pressure throughout the plan. Let’s not forget DAN, which monitors water and chlorine in the subsurface as we are driving along. It’s so easy to forget the ones that sit quietly in the back – but in this case, they have important data to contribute!
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