Curiosity had Bobak. Now Perseverance has Swati.
Swati Mohan is the guidance and control operations lead for NASA's Mars 2020 mission, meaning she has basically been in charge of making sure the spacecraft carrying the Perseverance rover is oriented in the right direction. As Perseverance came in for its high-stakes landing Thursday, Mohan also provided much of the commentary from mission control during its tense entry, descent and landing.
"The spacecraft @NASAPersevere is currently transmitting heartbeat tones — these tones indicate that Perseverance is operating normally."
— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021
Swati Mohan, @NASAJPL engineer on the rover's landing team, provides a status update on the #CountdownToMars: pic.twitter.com/D1Tx9BEYld
A NASA veteran who was also on the Cassini mission, she has been on the Mars 2020 team since near its beginning in 2013.
As she walked the world through the steps of slowing a spacecraft down from over 12,000 miles per hour to make a soft landing in an ancient crater, Swati's star began to shine on social media. Mohan emigrated from India to the United States when she was a year old. A bindi could be seen on her forehead as she calmly announced each step of Perseverance's journey through her mask in mission control.
"I wore a bindi through primary school and got bullied, physically bullied for it," Anuradha Damale wrote on Twitter from London. "Swati Mohan in mission control, thank you."
listen.
— Anuradha Damale (@anulikesstars) February 18, 2021
i wore a bindi through primary school and got bullied, physically bullied, for it. this is doing all kinds of things to me. 🥲
swati mohan in mission control, thank you. #NASAPerseverance
Dr Swati Mohan is a legend 🙏🏾@DrSwatiMohan I had to take selfie with her and share my joy #DesiSpace #engineer #drswatimohan #MarsPerseverance pic.twitter.com/OdFALGUJua
— Anushka Sharma (@nushkino) February 18, 2021
Less obvious was the dyed braid in her hair she wore for the historic event, but it also made it online:
EDL family voted and I drew the straw for dyeing my hair per their request for landing day. 7 hours to entry. Landing approximately at 12:55pm. At JPL and ready to go! pic.twitter.com/96n3U3NQEs
— Swati Mohan (@DrSwatiMohan) February 18, 2021
"Dr. Swati Mohan has inspired a new generation of scientists today," wrote astrophysicist Karan Jani.
Dr. Swati Mohan (@DrSwatiMohan) has inspired a new generation of scientists today. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 #Mars2020 pic.twitter.com/9oJY2wx3wF
— Dr. Karan Jani (@AstroKPJ) February 18, 2021
Congrats to Mohan and the rest of the Mars 2020 team on a successful landing. Can't wait to follow the surface phase of the mission.
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