Actually, I wanted to be a pediatrician until I was about 16 years old. I was always interested in space, but I didn t really know about opportunities to turn that interest into a job. When I was 16, I took my 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 explains in her profile.
A Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University and her MS and PhD from MIT in Aeronautics/Astronautics followed before she joined Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where 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, including as its GNC operation’s lead at JPL in Pasadena, California.
On 19 February 2021, NASA has successfully landed its Perseverance rover on Mars. Among the scientists who are part of this historic mission, Indian-American Dr Swati Mohan spearheaded the development of attitude control and the landing system for the rover.
Indian-American scientist Swati Mohan. Photo credit: Twitter/@DrSwatiMohan
Touchdown confirmed, exclaimed Ms. Mohan, who emigrated from India to the US when she was only a year old. 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.