August 11, 2020
A systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Rebekah Sosland Siegfriedt, B.S. ASE 2013, has been working on the Mars Perseverance mission for the past five years. On July 30, the rover sped from Earth at nearly 24,600 mph and is scheduled to land on Mars in February, where it will begin its historic search for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet. Bekah tells us what it’s been like to work on the rover and how her education at UT Austin helped her prepare for this important mission.
Tell us about your role on the Mars Perseverance mission and how you felt once the rover launched.
I’m a mission operations systems engineer on the Mars 2020 project, which means I was responsible for designing and testing the health and safety of Perseverance (Persy) before she left for Mars. Once she lands, I’ll be managing the rover’s well-being by implementing daily activities and quickly solving problems during the mission.
The launch was so emotional because I’ve spent years on this project. The night before, I was thinking wow, this is Persy’s last night on Earth. It’s like sending your kid off to college, but never seeing them again! And even though it was time of celebration, there was still a lot to be done, double checking parameters, crossing our Ts, dotting our Is. At the same time, I was involved with a lot of outreach including TV interviews across the nation. All the while I was working from home with a small child in my lap. To sum it up, the week of launch was pretty hectic but also exciting!
We’ve been to Mars with other rovers. What makes the Perseverance mission so important?
So yes, we’ve been to Mars before – in 1997 we landed Pathfinder to perform a technical demonstration with Sojourner to prove we could move about on Mars; then in 2004 we sent Spirit and Opportunity to look for water followed by Curiosity in 2012 to see if there is evidence that life might have ever existed. Not only did we find out that water once existed there, but that it was drinkable water. So, the next step for Perseverance is to search for evidence of ancient, microbial life by drilling down and collecting soil samples. We’ll be learning more about the planet’s potential to support humans in the future as well. And we’ll be doing a technical demonstration of a small helicopter, Ingenuity, to see if we can fly on Mars and to capture videos of the terrain. That’s going to be exciting and it’s one of the first things scheduled to happen after Persy lands on Mars.
What do you enjoy most about working on this project and what do you find most challenging?
I’ve had the opportunity to work with people from many different countries and backgrounds across the globe. It’s been great to see everyone come together and work on this project for humanity. We all have the same goal in mind. We all support each other. And it’s been a very happy project to work on during this difficult time – a real breath of fresh air.
Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, has made things extremely challenging. Not only am I working from home, but oftentimes I’ve had to make decisions about the Mars rover with a toddler in my lap while also being eight months pregnant!
But when I think I’ve had it, I like to think about Katherine Johnson and the other women at NASA who were faced with such difficult circumstances while they were working to put the first astronauts in space – how they had to run from building to building to use the segregated bathrooms, eat in separate dining spaces, etc. And I think if they can do it, I can certainly do it too. That helps me put things into perspective.
How did your education in aerospace engineering at UT help prepare you for this work?
Every single class that I took in the department has helped with my career in some way; spacecraft dynamics, orbital mechanics, propulsion. The systems engineering class is what I continue to pull up notes from. That class was fundamental in getting me into my career at JPL. Being involved with student projects and organizations also helped me more than I thought it would, especially with my communication skills, learning how to work on a team, and developing good time management skills. All of these skills are really important in my current position at JPL.
What are the next steps now that Persy is on its way to Mars?
When Persy finally lands on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, I will be overseeing the health and safety of the vehicle and the subsystems to ensure they are all working together so that we can perform the science missions. I’ll report these findings to the science team each day so that they know what resources are available. I should also mention that our team will be on “Mars time” for the first 90 days. And since a Martian day is 40 minutes longer than an Earth day, that means our work schedule changes 40 minutes each day since we have to communicate with Perseverance at the same time every day. So, for members of the operations team, we will constantly have to change our sleep schedules during this time. It’s going to be a weird time for the team as we adjust our lives around Persy’s schedule, but it’s also going to be a great opportunity for the team to bond.
