Ahead of the News 2021 Series

Exploring and Flying on Mars:  Mimi Aung, Jet Propulsion Lab, Project Director of the Mars Helicopter

The Mars Rover "Perseverance", with the Ingenuity tucked inside, is due to land on Mars on February 18th, and we are delighted that Aung is taking time out of her hectic schedule to share her insights into the mission. 

At 16, MiMi travelled alone from Myanmar to the US for access to education, finished high school within a year, and headed to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign to study electronic engineering, earning her master's degree in 1990. Her master's dissertation considered communications and signal processing. Working in deep space exploration was a natural profession, and was hired directly to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. Since joining JPL in 1990, she has performed various roles in multiple disciplines on space flight and Deep Space Network (DSN) projects, technology development, and line management.  She is now leading the project for the Mars helicopter technology demonstration.  

Aung was named to the BBC's "100 Women" list for 2019.  To read more about Aung's fascinating background, check out this article.  

Artist’s concept of the Mars helicopter on the Martian surface. (Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech)