Dr. Swati Mohan : Important Indian connection of NASA’s new ‘Mars operation’

New Delhi : US Space Agency NASA’s rover ‘Perseverance’ has successfully landed on Mars. Among the scientists who became part of this historic mission, Indian-American Dr. Swati Mohan led activities related to altitude control and landing systems for the rover.

While the world was witnessing this historic landing, Dr. Mohan was coordinating and communicating between the GN&C subsystem and the rest of the project team, in the control room.

In addition to being the Chief Systems Engineer during the development process, he also schedules team care and mission control staffing for GN&C.

According to news agency ANI, NASA scientist Dr. Mohan was only one year old when she went from India to America. She spent most of her childhood in the Northern Virginia-Washington DC metro area. At the age of 9, after seeing “Star Trek” for the first time, she was quite surprised by the beautiful depictions of new regions of the universe. She felt that she had to do the same thing and “find new and beautiful places in the universe”.

However, she also wanted to become a paediatrician at the age of 16. But, because of her first physics class and a good teacher, she found that “engineering” is the only way to fulfil her interest in space exploration.

Dr. Mohan earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University and completed her MS and PhD from MIT in Aeronautics / Astronautics.

The 6-wheel NASA Rover ‘Perseverance’ will use its 7-ft arm to collect rock samples and other information, which can answer questions such as whether there was ever life on Mars.