Meet Dr. Swati Mohan, Who Landed 'Mars Rover' on The Red Planet

"Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking the signs of past life," exclaimed NASA engineer Dr Swati Mohan.

The #Perseverance_Rover was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida on July 30, 2020 -- made its landing on an ancient river delta in a lake that once filled Jezero Crater. (#NASA Mars Mission)

Landing safely, on the floor of a vast crater on Mars, the most advanced astrobiology laboratory of NASA's ever sent to another world was amongst one of the most critical assignments on earth in the recent times.

The six-wheeled rover took about seven minutes to descend from the top of the Martian atmosphere to the planet’s surface. Thus JPL engineers affectionately refer to as the #"7 minute of terror”.

The '7 Minutes of Terror'

For Entry, descent and landing top of the atmosphere, down to the surface, takes literally seven minutes with space craft entering the atmosphere at a speed of 13,000 miles an hour and going to zero. Activities are planned in perfect sequence, perfect choreography, perfect timing controlled by onboard computer with no real-time help from the ground. If any one thing doesn't work just right, the game is over.

It takes 14 minutes or so for the signal from the spacecraft to make it to Earth. And to get the first words of touchdown, a status whether the craft is dead or alive one has to wait seven minutes and in silence.

This is what Dr Swati Mohan, an American of Indian Origin, planned and delivered successfully. Dr Mohan is living her dream which stuck with her since age of 9 watching Start Treck for the 1st time.

As an operations lead of GN&C, Dr Swati Mohan was the primary point of communication between the GN&C subsystem and the rest of the project. She was 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.

The GN&C is "eyes and ears" of the spacecraft. During the cruise phase heading toward Mars, this team was responsible for figuring out how the space craft was oriented, make sure the spacecraft is pointed correctly in space (solar arrays to sun, antenna to Earth), and maneuver the spacecraft to get it where is required to go. During entry, descent, and landing on Mars, GN&C determines the position of the spacecraft and commands and maneuvers it to help land safely.

Thank you Dr. Mohan for being an Indian born. It gives us Indians another opportunity to prove to the world that your success is about Indian values & Indian parenting. In doing so we are diluting all your hard work as well as dedication, not respecting enough the environment you got and the professional attitude you developed post landing in the US as a 1 year old.

Born in India – not a choice

Immigrated to US – her destiny

Inspired by Star Trek – focus at early stage

PhD from MIT - Studied hard

Flight controller for NASA Mars mission – right attitude and skills, continuous learning, dedication and approach to her work got her the role as a lead

About Dr Swati Mohan

According to NASA, Dr Mohan had emigrated from India to the United States at the age of 1. She grew up in Northern Virginia-Washington DC metro area and later completed her B.S from Cornell University in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. She went on to receive her M.S. and Ph.D from MIT in Aeronautics/Astronautics. She has worked on multiple missions such as Cassini (mission to Saturn) and GRAIL (a pair of formation flown spacecraft to the Moon). She has worked on Mars 2020 since almost the beginning of the project in 2013 and is currently working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.

Watching ‘Star Treck’ at the age of 9, Dr Mohan was quite astound with the beautiful depictions of the new regions of the universe that they were exploring. She also started to dream about "finding new and beautiful places in the universe." Dropping her decision to become a pediatrician at 16 thanks to an excellent teacher who took the first physics class for her. She considered "engineering" as a way to pursue her interest towards space exploration.

Let’s wish Dr Swati Mohan all the success in all her future endeavor.