Soft Mars landing thanks to engineer from Bishopbriggs

Senior Features Writer

Monday 3 September 2012

Until now, perhaps understandably, Bishopbriggs has not played a major part in the story of space exploration.

success: Nasa engineer Dr Anita Sengupta spent her early life in Scotland before her family emigrated to the US. Working at the Johnson Space Centre, far left, she designed the landing parachute for the current Mars mission. Pictures: James Blair/Nasa/JPL-Caltech

Custom byline text:

Teddy Jamieson

But the east Dunbartonshire town can at least lay some small claim to the current Mars mission thanks to Nasa engineer Dr Anita Sengupta.

The 35-year-old, responsible for the colossal parachute that slowed the descent of the Mars Curiosity Rover as it plummeted towards the red planet, was born in Stobhill Hospital. She spent the first two years of her life in Bishopbriggs before emigrating to New York.

"I never had a [Scottish] accent," she admits mournfully while sitting in her office in Pasadena, "my brother did".In the wake of the successful landing of the one-ton Mars Curiosity Rover, Dr Sengupta has been talking to the media non-stop for the last couple of weeks – particularly the Indian media, as she is half-Indian. She was part of the team that managed to get the landing vehicle down in one piece on a planet with a much thinner atmosphere, having descended at supersonic speeds. The parachute – made of a mixture of nylon and kevlar, "the same material that bulletproof vests are made out of" – was deployed while the vehicle was travelling at speeds over Mach 2 (some 900 miles per hour).The scientists and engineers who had worked for years on the mission were, needless to say, a bit excited when the curiosity rover touched down unscathed. "It was ecstatic," Dr Sengupta says. "It's hard to put into words what that felt like. There was a collective cheer. Some people crying, lots of people hugging. I think I hugged everybody and I ended up getting a cold afterwards. "But it was great because you work for so many years and you have ups and downs but right at that moment when its successful any pain that you suffered- all that goes away and you're like 'let's do that again tomorrow'."Dr Who can lay claim to some credit for Dr Sengupta's involvement in the Mars mission. Watching the programme as a child in New York was what got her interested in the subject. She worked for the aerospace industry and commercial communications satellites, and developed ion-engine technologies for a mission to Jupiter before being approached in 2005 to help with the MSL mission. That childhood fascination with space remains. "When you think about it, you are this tiny little speck in the universe and space is everything that's around you. There could be other lifeforms out there, there could be other worlds."Since completing the parachute, Dr Sengupta has led concept development for several other major projects. "Right now we are starting up a laser cooling experiment for the International Space station for launch in 2015," she says."I think we're in a really good place right now. We're in the process of developing new technologies which will help both robotic missions as well as manned exploration."

Contextual targeting label:

Automotive

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Soft Mars landing thanks to engineer from Bishopbriggs

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED