Background
Kobie Boykins is a member of the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Before the Mars Exploration Rovers project, he worked on Mars Pathfinder and was the mechanical lead for mobility on the Nanorover technology component which was selected by the Japanese Space Agency (ISAS) to fly on their long-delayed comet landing mission, MUSES-C. He also served as mechanical lead for mobility on the Subsurface Explorer (SSX) technology task, and in support of the Free Flying Magnetometer flight project, the (cancelled) 2001 Mars flight project, the Solar Probe spacecraft, and the Stardust flight project, the first U.S. mission to robotically obtain samples from deep space (from Comet Wild 2) and return them to Earth. He's also a hockey fan, and avid player, as a 5' 10" 175 lb. forward for the "Caltech Beavers" in the 2001-2002 season. Kobie was born in Omaha, NE.

Responsibilities at KSC (the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, FL)
Since moving the vehicle down here to KSC, I've been in charge of both the MER-1 and MER-2 rover equipment deck (RED) integration, from moving the science instruments onto the RED, and and then the RED onto the WEB - warm electronics box - for the rover.