Indian-American scientist Swati Mohan leads NASA’s Mars 2020 mission

"Touchdown confirmed," exclaimed Ms. Mohan, who emigrated from India to the US when she was only a year old.

February 19, 2021 02:11 pm | Updated 02:11 pm IST - Washington

Indian-American scientist Swati Mohan. Photo credit: Twitter/@DrSwatiMohan

Indian-American scientist Swati Mohan. Photo credit: Twitter/@DrSwatiMohan

As the world witnessed the historic landing of NASA's Perseverance rover on the Martian surface , it was Indian-American scientist, Swati Mohan, who led the guidance, navigation, and control operations of the Mars 2020 mission.

Ms. Mohan also confirmed that the rover had survived a particularly tricky plunge through the Martian atmosphere.

"Touchdown confirmed," exclaimed Ms. Mohan, who emigrated from India to the US when she was only a year old. She says the Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Operations (GN&C) are "eyes and ears" of the spacecraft.

Raised in Northern Virginia and Washington DC metro area, she completed her bachelor's degree from Cornell University in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, and her M.S. and Ph.D from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Aeronautics/Astronautics.

Over the course of her career with NASA, Ms. Mohan has worked on the Cassini mission to Saturn and GRAIL — a pair of formation flown spacecraft to the Moon, and has been a mainstay with the Mars 2020 mission since its beginning in 2013.

According to Ms.Mohan, her interest in space was peaked after watching the popular TV show Star Trek when she was nine-years-old.

“Seeing the beautiful depictions of the new regions of the universe that they were exploring. I remember thinking ‘I want to do that. I want to find new and beautiful places in the universe.’ The vastness of space holds so much knowledge that we have only begun to learn,” she had told NASA.

She noted that her passion for space increased further when she took her first physics class. “I was lucky enough to have a great teacher, and everything was so understandable and easy. That was when I really considered engineering, as a way to pursue space,” she added.

Commenting on her team's role in the current mission, Ms. Mohan said during the cruise phase heading toward Mars, their job is to figure out how the spacecraft is oriented, and make sure it is pointed correctly in space — “solar arrays to sun, antenna to Earth, and maneuver the spacecraft to get it where we want to go.” She said during the "seven minutes of terror" leading to the entry, descent, and landing on Mars, GN&C determines the position of the spacecraft and commands the maneuvers to help it land safely.

“As the team's operations lead, I am the primary point of communication between the GN&C subsystem and the rest of the project. I am responsible for the training of the GN&C team, scheduling the mission control staffing for GN&C, as well as the policies/procedures the GN&C uses in the mission control room," Ms. Mohan noted.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.