Meet Swati Mohan, Indian-American scientist on the Mars Rover landing team

Indian-American engineer Swati Mohan was among the team of scientists responsible for the successful landing of NASA's Perseverance rover on February 18.

"Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking the signs of past life," exclaimed Mohan, who played a crucial role in the landing.

The Perseverance rover will collect samples from Mars, which could possibly help scientists determine signs of past life on the planet.

Mohan is the Mars 2020 Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Operations Lead, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

According to a NASA website, Mohan completed her B.S from Cornell University in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and her M.S. and Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Aeronautics/Astronautics.

"The spacecraft @NASAPersevere is currently transmitting heartbeat tones — these tones indicate that Perseverance is operating normally."

Related stories

• 
  Images of Red Spider Nebula revealed by NASA's Hubble and Webb telescopes
• 
  NASA schedules the release of multi-mission images of Comet 3I/ATLAS
• 
  NASA prepares sentinel-6b launch to study global ocean changes

Swati Mohan, @NASAJPL engineer on the rover's landing team, provides a status update on the #CountdownToMars: pic.twitter.com/D1Tx9BEYld

— NASA (@NASA) February 18, 2021

Also read: NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life

"She has worked on multiple missions such as Cassini (mission to Saturn) and GRAIL (a pair of formation flown spacecraft to the Moon)," NASA said on its Mars Exploration Program website.