She is a Trekkie, a mother of two, and believes we may not be alone in the universe. She should know, she has landed a spacecraft on Mars.
Swati Mohan, an Indian-American aerospace engineer who steered the controls and landing system of the Mars rover Perseverance from a Nasa lab three years ago, told a bunch of schoolchildren here on Thursday that her interest in space exploration was first ignited by Star Trek.
Mohan, who traces her roots to Bangalore and wears a bindi, emigrated from India to the US with her parents four decades ago, when she was barely a year old.
At a packed auditorium at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum, Mohan looked back at her journey from being “a Star Trek fan” to Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, acting as the “eyes and ears” of the agency’s most sophisticated spacecraft to date.
After her talk, she took questions. A small girl in big red glasses stood up. “When you were little, you watched Star Trek. You like exploring new worlds. Even if it is a little bit, do you believe there are aliens out there?” she asked.
Mohan replied: “I believe the universe is a massive, massive place. The likelihood that we are the only planet to have ever supported life in every way is probably very small, given the size (of the universe).”
“I do too,” the girl grinned.
Mohan was the Mars 2020 guidance and controls operations lead for the Perseverance mission, whose February 18, 2021, landing was the high point of one of the world’s most ambitious space programmes.
Another girl wanted to know about the hardships Mohan had faced.
Mohan said she was rejected, twice, by a high school coveted for science courses.
“If I couldn’t even get into a high school, how could I get into a good college? What did that mean for getting a job? I took a while to get over it,” she said.
“There may be other factors that you cannot control. What you can control is the next step and how much effort you put into the next step.”
A boy asked about the “one achievement she was most proud of”.
Not surprisingly, Mohan said it was the “landing day (of Perseverance)”.
“Mostly because of all the different things I worked on, that (Mars mission) has been the one that I have worked on with singular focus for the longest consecutive period in my life,” she said.
“Perseverance took eight years (of hard work), for one day. We knew that we were going to land on February 18. To work that long and hard for a singular moment and then see that moment go successfully, that was an immense feeling of satisfaction.”
Another boy asked Mohan to pick her “favourite country” between India and America. The audience erupted in laughter.
Swati Mohan interacts with students at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum on Thursday. Picture by Gautam Bose.
“It is like asking who your favourite child is. You can’t ask a parent who their favourite child is,” Mohan, married to a physician and the mother of two daughters, said.
When Perseverance gently landed on the surface of Mars after seven months in space, it was Mohan who first confirmed the touchdown.
“Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking the signs of past life,” she announced, as the Nasa mission control in California erupted in joy.
Mohan was raised in Northern Virginia and Washington DC. She completed her bachelor’s in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Cornell University and her master’s and PhD in aeronautics/ astronautics from MIT.
She has worked on multiple missions such as Cassini (mission to Saturn) and GRAIL (lunar mission). She worked on Mars 2020 almost since the beginning of the project in 2013.
After the address, Mohan got off the dais to mingle with the students. Everyone wanted a closer look at her Nasa jacket.
More than 500 students from various schools in and around Calcutta listened to Mohan at the Birla Museum.
The programme was held in collaboration with the US consulate in Calcutta.