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NORTH AmERIcAN Newsline February 26, 2021 | The Indian Eye 24

visHnu sridHar

another indian american who

helped ‘perseverance’

The 27-year-old is the lead systems engineer for the SuperCam on the Mars 2020 rover

Our Bureau the first rotorcraft [helicopter]
on another planet, according to
New York
A Sridhar.
“We have another instru-
native of Queens, New
ment called MOXIE, which is
York, Indian American
Vishnu Sridhar was part
of the team that helped engi- this little piece of technology
that’s going to use the Martian
neer the Mars rover, Persever- atmosphere to produce oxygen,”
ance. While growing up in Rego the Indian American added
Park, Queens, Sridhar was awed in the Gothamist report. “That’s
at the airplanes that would take a tech demo that’s going to pave
off from nearby LaGuardia air- our way into the future for hu-
port, a Gothamist report said. man space explorers.”

as a high-school student, supercam has a micro-

he sent a weather balloon scopic-level camera that

up 100,000 feet and got can take minute, high-res-

a taste of the vastness of olution images of rocks
space—so much left un- that the geologists on

explored, unseen by hu- earth can analyze and

man eyes. His grandfather, study. but it also has built

a civil engineer who built in lasers and spectrome-
trains and dams in india, ters [for chemical analy-

also inspired him, accord- sis], the report notes.

ing to the feb. 18 report.
When it fires its laser, it can
“One of the key events that basically detect the chemical
sparked my interest in space composition and the mineral
and exploration was watch- makeup of the different rocks,
ing National Geographic. The Sridhar said.
Carl Sagan TV show ‘Cosmos’, “Summer 2019 was when in-
too—that really sparked my struments came in from France
interest in human exploration and Los Alamos and when we
and exploring our solar system,” han, leading operations. be able to physically reach, the physically integrated Super-
Sridhar said in the report. The SuperCam is an instru- Gothamist report said. Cam with the Perseverance
Now the 27-year-old is the ment designed to scan rocks The rover, the SuperCam, rover,” Sridhar reminisced.
lead systems engineer for the and minerals—from up to 20 and its other devices will help “That’s something I will cherish
SuperCam on the Mars 2020 feet away—to determine their scientists search for clues of for the rest of my life, to have
rover, Perseverance. The rover chemical makeup. It will al- past life on Mars. The rover touched and worked on a piece
landed on Feb. 18, with anoth- low the rover to analyze parts also has a buddy with it called of hardware that’s on its way to
er Indian American, Swati Mo- of the terrain that it may not Ingenuity, which is going to be Mars.”

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