Bob Marcialis

Until spring of 2000, I worked with Peter Smith’s MAGI group, which stands for Mars Atmospheric and Geologic Imaging. Basically, I played eye doctor and calibration engineer for several of the cameras sent to the surface of Mars. You’ve all seen pictures from the Mars Pathfinder? That was our toy. It sent over 24,000 pictures to Earth.

Unfortunately, we also had two cameras aboard the doomed Mars Polar Lander mission, which crashed on Mars in December, 1999. Mars Polar Lawndart was built and destroyed by the Lockheed-Martin Aerospace Corporation (). These are the same pinheads who mixed up imperial (lbs force) and metric units (Newtons), which caused the Mars Climatological Orbiter to burn up in the atmosphere of Mars. In the four years I taught Astronomy at Pima Community College, I always deducted 50% from a student’s answer if they didn’t include the units. Unfortunately, none of the Lockheed folk ever took my class. Due to the crash, our contract with JPL was cancelled, and the majority of our group summarily fired. Faster, better, cheaper: pick two.

Currently I am on layoff from William Boynton’s Gamma Ray Spectrometer group, since they “have not identified any additional tasks that will be assigned to my position.” This instrument is on the Mars 2001 Odyssey Orbiter. Odyssey went into orbit around Mars on last October. As you read this, GRS is making compositional maps of the martian near-surface. The most likely places where subsurface water might be found have already been identified (see my work links). You can also check out JPL’s Mars Odyssey web site for current information on the mission. Our preliminary results are summarized in a paper, published in 05 July issue of Science magazine.

By training, I am a planetary astronomer. My field of expertise is the outer solar system, specifically the planet Pluto and its satellite Charon. I would love dearly to continue active scientific research some day. However, the current financial status and treatment of Postdoctoral Researchers in this country is disgusting. The salary of a postdoctoral fellow is far below what would cause a person with a Bachelor’s degree in engineering to laugh. So my research aspirations have been put on temporary hold.

When not doing rocket science, I am usually found on the softball diamond. I have been an umpire of fastpitch softball since 1975, and work a rather heavy schedule for several organizations, including the Amateur Softball Association, the Pacific-10 Conference, the Mountain West Conference, the Big West Conference, the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the Western Athletic Conference, the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference, the Arizona Interscholastic Association, and Tucson Parks & Recreation. I’ve worked 15 National Championships, and continually strive to improve my game. You are only as good as your next call.

I am Past-President and serve as Webmaster for the Tucson Softball Officials Association.