Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, September 13, 2004 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Jennifer Trosper

"The Mars Exploration Rovers"

ABSTRACT -- The twin rovers of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Project successfully landed on the surface of Mars in January 2004, and initiated a highly successful science and exploration campaign. This marked the culmination of an unprecedented four-year effort to design, build, launch, and operate two of the most complex planetary spacecraft ever built. The project was started in the aftermath of the 1999 Mars mission failures, and was commissioned to take advantage of the highly advantageous 2003 opportunity. The development schedule from project start to launch was only 35 months and was filled with challenges and unexpected events. Post-launch, the excitement continued as the spacecraft approached Mars and the team completed the final development work to prepare for landing and surface operations. Post landing, the fascinating new scientific discoveries as well as the challenges of operating two spacecraft on Mars time with some significant spacecraft anomalies, made for a challenging project through the end ... which has not yet arrived. This talk will describe the MER team's experiences and challenges in the development and operations of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

SPEAKER -- Jennifer Harris Trosper held many roles on the MER mission. She was the MER Project System Engineer, Project System Verification and Validation Lead, Surface Operations Development Manager, and Spirit Mission Manager throughout the lifetime of the mission. She started at JPL in 1990 as a power subsystem engineer on advanced project design, and she worked on the development of the Cassini spacecraft Ground Software requirements. Starting in 1993, Ms. Trosper worked as a teacher in Sevastopol, Ukraine, teaching English and Bible to High School and Business School students. She returned to JPL in 1994 and led the Mars Pathfinder Attitude and Information Management Subsystem (AIM) operations development. She also led the Mars Pathfinder Surface Operations Test program and was Flight Director for Pathfinder's first day on Mars. Ms. Trosper earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she also earned a minor in music. She was born in Los Angeles, CA, and was raised on a farm in Fostoria OH.