QUESTION: 
What are some of the steps you took when designing the MGS and the 
Pathfinder cameras?  Was it fun and interesting and how long did it take?

ANSWER from Tim Gallagher on February 12, 1997:
As part of the team that engineered the Pathfinder's Camera system I can
respond to its design.  Some of the steps we took to design the CCD
(Camera) electronics is the same for many other systems:

1) Find out what we are designing and how the design is to be used.  The
University of Arizona specified a German CCD which was being designed into
a system going to Saturn's moon Titan.  They also had selected an IBM
Computer system to control the Pathfinder.  We had to build the stuff
(electronics) in between.

2) Find out how much money and time is to be spent on the design and what
is to be delivered (after the design).  Like buying a new car you can spend
quite a bit of money if one is not careful.

3) Find out what design methods to use - do we build it for a long-term
space mission (very costly), do we perform extensive analysis on it
(time-consuming), how do we test it. 

4) Learn the system we are building this design into - study how the CCD
and  the IBM Computer work.

5) Build a prototype or working model.

6) Work out the bugs (things that don't quite work right) between the
hardware and software.  The University of Arizona developed the software
which controlled the taking of pictures and the movement of the camera
motors and filters.

The electronics design (which was a small part of the total Pathfinder
vehicle) took less then 1/2 year.  However other parts of the system took
much longer.  (Testing a system will sometimes take longer then the design
itself).

We had a lot a fun designing the camera system and it was really
interesting taking pictures in the lab for the first time knowing that in
the near future it will be on Mars returning snapshots of that alien
terrain (hopefully).