NASA’s Perseverence Rover is finally on Mars and on Earth are two scientists from India on the moon – Swati Mohan and Vandi Verma.
‘When Mars is visible in the sky, you look at the dot and you think there is currently a robot doing commands that I said. It’s pretty wild, “said Vandi Verma, a NASA rover operator. Reuters.
Describing her work as “one of the coolest works in the world”, Verma is the NASA rover operator for perseverance. She hopes that women’s high profile in the latest Mars mission will inspire a new generation to pursue careers in a sector traditionally dominated by men.
Verma’s colleague Swati Mohan made headlines around the world when she told of the nail-biting landing of the Perseverance rover on the Red Planet after his dangerous descent through the Martian atmosphere.
‘It’s definitely inspired girls everywhere. It opened up people’s perceptions about who could be a space engineer, ‘Verma added. Reuters.
The Indian-American Dr Swati Mohan was at the forefront of the development of attitude control and the landing system for the rover – ‘Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance is safe on the surface of Mars, ready to begin searching for the signs of past life, ”exclaimed NASA engineer Dr Swati Mohan.
The Perseverance Rover was launched on July 30, 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida – on an ancient river delta in a lake that filled Jezero Crater.
According to NASA, Dr. Mohan emigrated from India to the United States at the age of one. She grew up in North Virginia-Washington DC metropolis and later completed her BSc at Cornell University in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. She received her MS and Ph.D from MIT in Aeronautics / Astronautics. She has worked on several missions, such as Cassini (mission to Saturn) and GRAIL (some formation planes flown to the moon). She has been working on Mars 2020 since almost the start of the project in 2013 and currently works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.
At the age of 9, after watching ‘Star Trek’ for the first time, he was amazed at the beautiful depictions of the new regions of the universe they explored. She immediately realized that she wanted to do it and ‘find new and beautiful places in the universe’. At the same time, Mohan also wanted to become a pediatrician until she was 16 years old. However, it was her first physics class and the ‘great teacher’ she got, that she saw ‘engineering’ as a way to pursue her interest in space exploration.
Verma, which has been orbiting Mars since 2008, said the latest mission will help answer questions “that change what we know about our place in the universe”.
Verma, a native of India, studied electrical engineering at Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh before moving to the United States, where she earned a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.
When she joined NASA in 2004, female engineers often found themselves the only woman in the room, she said. But things are changing.
NASA, which aims to land the first woman on the moon by 2024, aims to promote diversity. According to the agency, women made up 34% of the workforce in 2019, occupying 18% of senior scientific positions.
Verma said it was very exciting to see an increasing number of women’s applications, adding that diverse teams have led to ‘more creative, out-of-the-box thinking’.
British spatial engineer Vinita Marwaha Madill – founder of Rocket Women, which aims to inspire women to choose STEM careers – said role models are essential.
“You can not be what you can not see,” she said Reuters, with astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.
“Seeing someone who looks like you makes you believe it’s possible to achieve your goals,” said Marwaha Madill. His own passion fled after seeing Helen Sharman become the first British astronaut in space in 1991.
Women like Mohan, the leadership and operations of the Mars mission, will “inspire the next generation to reach for the stars,” she said.
‘N 2018 NITI Ayog report ‘Status of women in science among selected institutions in India’ finds that there are more women than ever enrolling in the field of science. However, women do not continue in the field of science for very long.
(With input from Reuters)