WCC Speaker Series: Kobie Boykins
Feb 22nd, 2024
At 7:30 p.m.

Where:
Wachholz College Center
795 Grandview Dr Kalispell, MT

Description:
Beyond Earth: The Quest for Life on an Icy Moon
Embark on a journey through more than two decades of space exploration with NASA engineer Kobie Boykins as he shares his greatest triumphs and challenges. One of the driving creative minds behind the Mars rovers, Kobie has turned to more distant frontiers. In 2024, he will lead NASA’s most ambitious mission to date: a circumnavigation of one of Jupiter’s four moons, Europa, searching for signs of life. Through footage shot by the rovers and animations, Kobie gives an up-close look at other worlds and shares why he’s so passionate about his work and how it’s relevant to life on Earth.

About Kobie Boykins
Kobie Boykins is a principal mechanical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In more than 25 years at the lab, he has worked on every Mars mission since Pathfinder, which took the first rover to Mars. Later, Kobie designed the solar arrays to power the Mars Exploration Rovers that sent images and data back to Earth, leading to the discovery that the surface of Mars once held water. In 2013, Kobie received a NASA Exceptional Service Medal, one of the highest honors given to NASA employees and contractors. In 2024, he will lead the NASA Europa Clipper mission, which will seek to determine whether the surface ice on Jupiter’s Europa moon holds liquid water beneath it—signifying the capacity for life—and to answer how water disappeared from Mars.