Sarah Milkovich | |
|---|---|
 Milkovich speaks at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2015 | |
| Alma mater | Brown University California Institute of Technology |
| Known for | HiRISE Mars 2020 |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
Sarah Milkovich is lead of Science Operations for the Mars 2020 rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was investigation scientist for the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Milkovich grew up in Ithaca, New York. [1] Here she became interested in astronomy watching TV specials about spacecraft of Nova and PBS, and during vacations in northern Minnesota. [2] [3] She used to watch the Perseid Meteor Shower with her parents. [3] Milkovich attended Phillips Exeter Academy, which she graduated in 1996. [4] Whilst a high school student, she worked as an intern for the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft. [3] She earned a bachelor's degree in planetary science at California Institute of Technology in 2000. [5] [6] She moved to Brown University, where she earned a Masters and PhD in planetary geology in 2005. [6] [7]
Milkovich joined the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory after completed her PhD. [8] There she has worked on the Mars Phoenix landing spacecraft, the Cassini–Huygens mission and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. [8] Her first rover was Curiosity, for which she was responsible for high-resolution imaging using HiRISE. [9] [2] She was most proud of the Mars Science Laboratory parachute image of Curiosity's landing. [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] HiRISE allowed Milkovich and scientists to take turns to choose where images were taken, and took suggestions from the public. [16] She featured on C-SPAN representing NASA to talk about developments in Curiosity. [17] [18]
Milkovich is the lead Science systems Engineer for Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars 2020 rover. [19] The rover is estimated to cost $2 billion. [20]
She regularly appears on online science podcasts and videos. [21] [22] [23] [24] She visits schools and gives public talks to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. [25] [26] [27] [28] [8] She has been a keynote speaker at Dragon Con in 2016 and 2018. [29] [30]
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the city of Pasadena in California, United States.
2001 Mars Odyssey is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectrometers and a thermal imager to detect evidence of past or present water and ice, as well as study the planet's geology and radiation environment. It is hoped that the data Odyssey obtains will help answer the question of whether life existed on Mars and create a risk-assessment of the radiation that future astronauts on Mars might experience. It also acts as a relay for communications between the Curiosity rover, and previously the Mars Exploration Rovers and Phoenix lander, to Earth. The mission was named as a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke, evoking the name of his and Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The planet Mars has been explored remotely by spacecraft. Probes sent from Earth, beginning in the late 20th century, have yielded a large increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and habitability potential. Engineering interplanetary journeys is complicated and the exploration of Mars has experienced a high failure rate, especially the early attempts. Roughly sixty percent of all spacecraft destined for Mars failed before completing their missions and some failed before their observations could begin. Some missions have met with unexpected success, such as the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity which operated for years beyond their specification.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005 and reached Mars on March 10, 2006. In November 2006, after five months of aerobraking, it entered its final science orbit and began its primary science phase. The cost to develop and operate MRO through the end of its prime mission in 2010 was US$716.6 million .
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The overall objectives include investigating Mars' habitability, studying its climate and geology, and collecting data for a human mission to Mars. The rover carries a variety of scientific instruments designed by an international team.
A space probe, or simply probe, is a robotic spacecraft that doesn't orbit the Earth, but instead explores farther into outer space. A space probe may approach the Moon; travel through interplanetary space; flyby, orbit, or land or fly on other planetary bodies; or enter interstellar space.
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Curiosity is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Gale crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral (CCAFS) on 26 November 2011, at 15:02:00 UTC and landed on Aeolis Palus inside Gale crater on Mars on 6 August 2012, 05:17:57 UTC. The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 560 million km (350 million mi) journey.
Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission forming part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program that includes the rover Perseverance and the small robotic, coaxial helicopter Ingenuity. Mars 2020 was launched from Earth on an Atlas V launch vehicle at 11:50:01 UTC on 30 July 2020, and confirmation of touch down in Jezero crater on Mars was received at 20:55 UTC on 18 February 2021. On 5 March 2021, NASA named the landing site of the rover Octavia E. Butler Landing. As of 26 June 2021, Perseverance and Ingenuity have been on Mars for 125 sols.
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Susan G. Finley, a native Californian, has been an employee of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) since January 1958, making her the longest-serving woman in NASA. Two days before Explorer 1 was launched, Finley began her career with the laboratory as a human computer, calculating rocket launch trajectories by hand. She now serves as a subsystem engineer for NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN). At JPL, she has participated in the exploration of the Moon, the Sun, all the planets, and other bodies in the Solar System.
Ms.Diana Trujillo Pomerantz is a Colombian aerospace engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She currently leads the engineering team at JPL responsible for the robotic arm of the Perseverance rover. On February 18th 2021, Trujillo hosted the first ever Spanish-language NASA transmission of a planetary landing, for the Perseverance rover landing on Mars.
Laura Kerber is an American research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory studying planetary geology. Her research has covered explosive volcanism, wind erosion in deserts, and extraterrestrial caves. Her work focuses mainly on Mercury, Mars, and the Moon. Kerber graduated from Pomona College in 2006 and holds two master's degrees, in Geology and Engineering, and a PhD in Geology from Brown University.
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Bethany List Ehlmann is a Professor of Planetary Science at California Institute of Technology and a Research Scientist at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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