First Mode President Chris Voorhees and engineers Brian Geddes and Sophia Kim check out the newly completed goniometer before shipping it to Western Washington University. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
The 3-foot-wide contraption that was built in First Mode’s Seattle workshop looks like something from a science-fiction movie, complete with spinning cogwheels and a flashing light beam and it really does have an out-of-this-world purpose: helping scientists interpret readings from Mars.
Even the word that describes the gizmo has a sci-fi sound: “goniometer.”
Today, First Mode‘s engineering team delivered the 3-D goniometer to Western Washington University’s Mars Lab in Bellingham, Wash., where it’ll be used in connection with NASA’s Perseverance rover mission.