Perseverance Rover

The Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter sit on the surface of Mars.
​​This image shows the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of Mars. It is made of 62 individual images stitched together, all taken by a camera located at the end of the rover’s long robotic arm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

My Contribution

As a mechatronics engineer on this mission, I led a piece of hardware called the abrading drill bit from early development through use on Mars. I was responsible for the design, assembly, test, delivery, and flight operation of this drill bit.

The abrading drill bit is used to remove the outer layer of rock that may have been changed by the Martian environment, allowing the rover’s suite of instruments to study the unaltered rock underneath. Information from those instruments helps scientists on the mission decide whether to collect a sample from that rock.

Blog Posts

During rover operations, I was a contributor to the Mars 2020 mission blog. You can read my posts here:

The Latest from the Rover

Here are some ways to see the very latest from the Perseverance rover: