Indian-American scientist Swati Mohan played key role in NASA Mars rover landing

IndianAmerican scientist Swati Mohan who leads the guidance navigation and control operations of NASAs Mars 2020 mission played a pivotal role in landing the US space agencys historic Perseverance rover on the Martian surface on FridayMohan was also the first to confirm that the rover had successfully touched down on the Martian surface after surviving a particularly tricky plunge through the atmosphere of the Red PlanetTouchdown confirmed Perseverance safely on the surface of Mars ready to begin seeking signs of past life flight controller Mohan announced prompting her colleagues at NASA to fistbump and break into celebrationsMohan who emigrated from India to the US when she was only a year old says the Guidance Navigation and Controls Operations GNampC are eyes and ears of the spacecraftCommenting on her teams role in the current mission Mohan said during the cruise phase heading towards Mars their job was 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 goShe said during the seven minutes of terror leading to the entry descent and landing on Mars GNampC determines the position of the spacecraft and commands the maneuvers to help it land safelyAs the teams operations lead I am the primary point of communication between the GNampC subsystem and the rest of the projectI am responsible for the training of the GNampC team scheduling the mission control staffing for GNampC as well as the policiesprocedures the GNampC uses in the mission control room Mohan notedRaised in Northern VirginiaWashington DC metro area she completed her bachelors degree from Cornell University in Mechanical amp Aerospace Engineering and her MS and PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT in AeronauticsAstronauticsOver the course of her career with NASA 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 2013Mohan says she got interested in space after watching the popular TV show Star Trek when she was 9Seeing 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 NASAMohan noted that her passion for space increased further when she took her first physics class at the age of 16I 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 addedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever