WASHINGTON: “You Kidding Me? What An Honour”: Biden To Indian-American At NASA Meet

WASHINGTON: Indian-American aerospace
engineer Dr Swati Mohan, who played a pivotal role in the successful landing of
NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars, has told US President Joe Biden that her
path to the premier US space agency began when she watched the first episode of
Star Trek as a child.

Dr Mohan
is the guidance and controls operations lead for the Perseverance rover
mission, acting as the “eyes and ears” for NASA’s most sophisticated
spacecraft to date.

She
played a key role in landing the US space agency’s historic Perseverance rover
on the Martian surface on February 18. Dr Mohan was also the first to confirm
that the rover had successfully touched down on the Martian surface after
surviving a particularly tricky plunge through the atmosphere of the Red
Planet.

Dr Mohan,
who emigrated from India to the US when she was only a year old, told Biden
that her path actually started way back when she was a child, watching the
first episode of Star Trek, the popular TV show.

“In
addition to those fantastical scenes of space, what really captured my attention
was this really close-knit team which was working together, manipulating this
technological marvel with the sole purpose of exploring space and understanding
new things and seeking new life,” Swati Mohan told Joe Biden during a
virtual interaction on Thursday.

US President
Biden congratulated the NASA team responsible for the successful landing of the
six-wheeled rover on Mars and for giving the country a “dose of
confidence” at a moment when the nation’s reputation as a scientific
leader has been tattered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Joe
Biden, speaking during a video conference call with the leadership of NASA’s
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) team led by Dr Michael Watkins, expressed awe
over the landing of the Perseverance.

Interacting
with Joe Biden, Dr Mohan said: “You know, Perseverance is my first mission
at JPL, where I have gotten to work from the very beginning of formulation, all
the way through operations, and it made me feel like I was part of that crew.
Being able to work with this incredibly diverse, talented team that has become
like a family, spending years creating our own technological marvel has been a
privilege.”

“Those
last days and weeks leading up to landing day, it was pretty smooth, but we
were all still really nervous and, frankly, terrified until we got through
those final seven minutes.”

Dr Mohan
helmed the mission’s attitude control system, which helps make sure the
spacecraft is heading in the direction it needs to be.

“To
be able to call touchdown safely, to see those first images come back from
Mars, to see the place where we have never been able to go to on Mars before
and go there — reach there for the express purpose of seeking out new life
just made it feel like I was living in a dream,” said the Indian-American
engineer.

“Now
that tremendous relief has passed for the team of being able to be there
safely, all that’s left is the excitement and the thrill of all the scientific
discoveries that are yet to come and what Perseverance can actually find — and
hopefully find those signs of past life on Mars,” Dr Mohan said.

She
thanked the US President for speaking to the NASA team. “Thank you for
taking the time to speak with us,” she said.

Joe Biden
said: “Are you kidding me? What an honour this is. This is an incredible
honour. And it’s amazing. Indian – of descent – Americans are taking over the
country: you (Swati Mohan), my Vice President (Kamala Harris), my speech writer
Vinay (Reddy). I tell you what. But thank you. You guys are incredible.”

“I
tell you what, you said you feel like you’re ‘living a dream’ — you’ve created
a dream for millions and millions of young kids, young Americans. You talk
about STEM. You — it was — look, the thing that I found so exhilarating about
this: You all did this — the whole team — the team I can see now and the
entire team at JPL — what you did: You restored a dose of confidence in the
American people,” Joe Biden said.

Dr Mohan
went on to study mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University,
followed by a masters degree and doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Eventually, she landed at NASA.

“They
were beginning to wonder about us. They were beginning to wonder: Are we still
the country we always believed we were? You guys did it. You guys gave a sense
of ‘America is back.’ It’s astounding what you did. You should not
underestimate it. You should not underestimate it,” the US President said.

“You
did it the most American way: You believed in science, you believed in hard
work, and you believed there wasn’t a darn thing you couldn’t do if you put
your minds together,” he said.

One of
the reasons why America is “such an incredible country is we’re such a
diverse country. We bring the best out of every single solitary culture in the
world here in the United States of America, and we give people an opportunity
to let their dreams run forward,” Joe Biden said.

“Everyone
was so down the last years about: Is America still the — fount of change? And
are we still the country that has hopes and develops and pursues the most
unlikely things to happen? And we are. And you all demonstrated it. I really
mean this. It’s so much bigger than landing Perseverance on Mars. It’s about
the American spirit, and you brought it back. You brought back in a moment we
so desperately need it,” he observed.

Dr Mohan
later tweeted: “I’m pretty sure I’m still in a dream. It’s amazing what we
can do when we dare mighty things, together.” She also tagged a video of
her interaction with Joe Biden.