Led by MIT Alums, Curiosity Rover Drills into Mars

More than six months after NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars, the rover has drilled into the planet's interior—the first time any robotic device has collected a sample on the planet.

The rover, which Time magazine deemed the best car in the entire solar system, previously discovered an area on the planet that may have contained a flowing stream. Researchers hope that the new sample will contain further evidence of past wet environments.

The official release from NASA includes quotes from three MIT alumni: John Grunsfeld '80, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate; Louise Jandura '84, SM '86, chief engineer for Curiosity's sample system; and Scott McClosky SM '07, drill systems engineer.

From NASA.gov:

"The most advanced planetary robot ever designed is now a fully operating analytical laboratory on Mars," said Grunsfeld. "This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for America."

The connection between MIT and the Curiosity team is well-documented. A January 2013 article in MIT Technology Review explored the role of alumni who have worked on the project and team members Allen Chen ’00, SM ’02 and Bobak Ferdowsi SM ’03 returned to MIT for a panel discussion on the Mars mission last year.

From "Destination: Mars:”

Noah Warner ’01, SM ’03, PhD ’07, who plans and uplinks the rover’s current daily activities, says NASA’s "very focused goals" make a perfect fit for MIT people, who are "really inspired by technical challenges: things that have not been done before, or trying to find new ways to solve very difficult and important problems."

Did you, or a fellow alum, work on NASA's Curiosity rover or other projects at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory? Slice has heard from many alums regarding their work at NASA and JPL, but we know there are morewho contributed to the rover and other related projects. Share your experiences on the LinkedIn discussion page.