Greater collaboration between governments and institutions is key to unravelling the deeper mysteries of space, Swati Mohan, Mars Launch System Chief Engineer, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said on Thursday.
In a lecture on ‘55+ years of Space Exploration’, which was co-hosted by the U.S. Consulate General Chennai and Pondicherry University, Ms. Mohan highlighted the ever-growing space ties between the United States and India, especially the partnership between NASA and ISRO, and co-engineered US-India initiative on Critical and emerging technology (iCET), a press note from the Consulate said.
“As a world, we are trying to address bigger questions in space exploration, a task that is increasingly harder for a single institution to do on its own. Collaboration, be it between government and private sectors or between nations, will be the key with which we unlock the mysteries of the universe,” the scientist said.
Ms. Mohan, who traced her south Indian roots, also shared with the audience her experiences working on NASA’S Mars Mission.
According to the Consulate, Ms. Mohan was barely one year old when her family emigrated to the United States. She went on to complete her B.S. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University, and M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics/Astronautics from MIT. She worked on multiple missions such as Cassini (mission to Saturn), GRAIL (a pair of formation flown spacecraft to the Moon), and on Mars 2020 - virtually since the beginning of the project in 2013.
She is currently the Mars 2020 Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Operations Lead, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and led the attitude control system during operations. She was the lead systems engineer throughout development (the attitude control system points the vehicle where it needs to be, and helps figure out where the spacecraft is oriented in space).
Addressing the students from diverse disciplines at the Pondicherry University, Ms. Mohan urged youngsters, especially women, to take up space technology as their career.
