NASA's Perseverance launches to Mars; alumnus work aboard

Philip Twu
alum
Perserverance rover
robotics
extreme robotics
Mars
navigation

On July 30, NASA launched the Perseverance rover to Mars on time from Cape Canaveral. Alumnus Philip Twu (EE and CS BS 2008), who now works at the Jet Propulsion Lab, has devoted three years to developing the navigation system for the rover. Philip spent time working in Professor P. S. Krishnaprasad’s Intelligent Servosystems Laboratory as an undergraduate.

The flight to Mars will take seven months, with an expected February 2021 landing date. If all goes well, Perseverance will spend several years scouring for signs of ancient microbial life, then actually send Martian soil samples back to Earth.

Get all the updates from NASA, and watch the launch video (the actual launch starts at about 3:00 into the video).

Published July 31, 2020