“With fritanga, cake and everything,” Diana Trujillo, from Cali, celebrated the arrival of the Perseverance robot to Mars at her home last Thursday. broadcast live and direct in Spanish to the Spanish-speaking community, through the ‘Juntos perseveramos’ program, through social networks and NASA JPL media.
Landing without any setbacks has her happy, because this aerospace engineer and her team were responsible for integrating all of the robot’s physical, electrical, and computer parts so that it does all its work on the red planet.
On her own initiative, the “Deputy Leader of Robotic Arm and Arm Science and Leader of the Travel Operations Examination Program,” positions she holds at NASA, wanted to be deployed on a Castilian space mission for the first time in the agency’s history.
For this reason, he long urged NASA JPL’s director of communications to allow him to broadcast such an event. In October last year, they gave her the go-ahead and Diana started writing the script for the show and looking for people and characters who could go to the show. He then worked with NASA communication professionals in Spanish to produce the production, finish the recording, and then broadcast the landing live.
Diana Trujillo, a former student of Colegio Cañaverales de Cali, spoke to El País about this experience as a presenter, the mission of perseverance and some curiosities:
Since when did the idea of sending a space mission come to mind?
Seven years ago we arrived with Curiosity (another mission to Mars that Diana took part in). I was having lunch with a friend who is married to a Mexican woman and she said, “You have to broadcast these missions in Spanish.” That stayed in my head until I could get it (laughs).
Were you able to sleep peacefully last Wednesday?
(Laughs) Yeah, you know what I wasn’t nervous. You know when you give it your all and when you’ve done things halfway. I was not nervous because I have been working with the people I work with for a long time, I know them from the previous mission. I went there with them to do the exams, I took the exams myself, I evaluated what we did myself and I was convinced at the time that we had done everything we needed to do and that’s why it is worked out .
Where did it come from?
From a NASA office where I was alone. I was directly connected to the flight director’s communication line that I was listening to.
There were two major events on Thursday: the broadcast and the landing, what made you most nervous?
Know? I’m not one to get that nervous. I prepared myself for the broadcast, I did everything I could to help myself as much as possible and I was not nervous. Not even when we had two technical problems, with audio, in the program.
What did it mean to you to know that Perseverance hit Mars? His joy overflowed …
It made me laugh because I passed on everything I was translating and later, when we already received the photo of the robot, I said, “Okay, my God, we’re here.” Because even when you hit the ground, there could be things that went wrong. The photo helps a lot to know the distance someone is at, or at least to know if the perspective is correct. That the missiles flying over the robot didn’t land on it. So when the picture arrived, there yes I was already relaxed.
In this image, the Rover Perseverance was about to hit the ground of Mars.
Twitter NASA’s Persistence Mars Rover
Was the planned schedule met? Is the mission going well?
Yes, it’s incredible how we get in, without any problem, without anything telling us to worry. I’m sure when we start rebuilding, we’ll be able to find one or two little things, because perfect in itself, nothing. But during the time that we received the information, we received it as we needed it and when we needed it. No, I still don’t believe it. But that doesn’t even happen in the movies … Everything is fine here: the robot hit the ground and then came the picture (laughs).
I’m going to tell you one more thing that I think is cool to know. When we enter the surface of Mars after several steps, the robot starts to take pictures and compare the pictures it takes of the surface with the pictures it has in its brain, because what we tell the robot is, “here it is. the map, based on photos taken by orbiters around Mars Now, as soon as you get to Mars, you start taking pictures and identifying, “This picture is the picture here.” He starts to lead himself. So when he takes that picture , he calculates what photo he has, to know where he is; At that point in taking all those photos, only the car decides where to go. That’s the new part of the technology we have in the mission, which is extremely complicated because if you don’t know where you are, you don’t know where to go and we’re talking about a missile trying to manipulate itself.
Why is it so important to go to Mars for humanity?
There are four things my mind has right now: the first, because the purpose of the mission is to show if there was microbial life on the surface of Mars in the past. That indirectly answers the question of whether we are alone in the universe. The second is what science is doing to answer that question.
The third is because we are making advancements in technology to be able to bring humans to Mars later. For example, making oxygen is one of the things we are going to do; Flying a helicopter on Mars for the first time is another; the photos, the entrance. We do things both ways. This is one of the reasons why this mission fascinates me. It is to answer are we alone in the universe? Let’s do the solid science and besides that, let’s think about man when he comes and how he can help him.
Does the robot have to stay on Mars for two years?
I explain the full photo so you can see how it works. The first thing is to know that the Rover will stay there. Curiosity’s mission was to find out if there was a way to sustain life. Then Perseverance follows. Curiosity said the ability to sustain life is on Mars; now perseverance says, let’s search. Let’s answer if there was life on Mars in the past and collect samples in pencil-sized tubes. Once that’s done, the next mission is going to take a little robot to collect those pencils and return them to Earth.
When the next mission comes and goes, we’ll demonstrate one more step: go back. We have shown that we can go, carry heavy things, land automatically, make oxygen and carry different things. Now we are going to show that we can return. At that point we practically say at NASA: all the steps are there, now we can take the human.
Do you know how many people watched the broadcast you made?
The last time I watched there were 1.7 million views on YouTube.
In Colombia, did you see your search by name increase by 2450% after the broadcast?
(Laughs) They told me something like that, but I didn’t know the number.
Did you know that your name was one of the most searched terms in Colombia on Thursday?
Oh my God (laughs). But the idea is not Diana Trujillo, the idea are the three reasons I wanted to broadcast. First, I wanted the grandmothers to see because they tell you, “look meita, be careful,” and you look. Two, let the parents see; these are the times when they say to you, “do it, if they can, you can.” And the third is that the kids or young people who are trying to decide what to do with their lives, when they see the broadcast, say, “That’s the job I want.” That was what I wanted. We as Colombians help each other a lot, we are a huge family. So the more people know this is possible, the more people can become NASA scientists and engineers.
What advice do you give to girls who have seen you, know your work, and dream of becoming like you?
I advise you a few things: look for what you like to do, not from the outside, but from the inside, in your heart. What do you love? Why do you like them? Find the. Identify them. And get closer to that dream. It is yours, it is what you want and it is in your heart that will not change. Now, see what to do with that. Find people who have worked in that area: what they’ve done, how they’ve done it, what they haven’t, and create your map based on that information to get you started. Then you can change course however you want. It never happened to me to give a presentation like me, in which over a million people saw me (laughs). Then understand if you are asking for advice because you need help or for validation. If it is the latter, then don’t. You know what you want. Do not expose yourself to a situation that will cause grief if another says, “No, me, you can’t.” It has to be done with curiosity and persistence. You can do it.
Did your father see the broadcast in Cali?
Yes, my father (Eduardo) saw her in Cali, she lives there. My grandmother and my aunt too. The only ones living in the United States are my mom (Patricia) and me. My grandmother, crying, happy, saw her at Signal Colombia and also my aunt. My dad messaged me and I think he was crying; Although it was audio only, it didn’t really stand out, but I said, “Yeah, he’s crying” (laughs).
What is your message to Colombians who take pride in your work and leadership in such an achievement …
Thank you very much for always being there. Every time I do something you show up, support me, tell me to keep going, encourage me. My message to all of you, with all the love in the universe, is thank you so much for continuing to support me, for saying that I can move on. I want to continue to bring scientific news and the progress we’ve made.
About scandalous Italian press headline
Last weekend, there was a stir in Colombian media and social networks for the headline used by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica to report on Diana Trujillo’s work as an aerospace engineer at NASA and her participation in the mission that brought the robot Perseverance to Mars last Thursday. . .
The note was entitled ‘Dalla Colombia dei narcos a Marte, la scienziata che muove la probe’ (‘From the Colombia of narcos to Mars, the scientist who moves the probe’). Last Saturday night, when El País approached the Cali woman to find out if she wanted to comment on the unfortunate matter, she was still unaware of it. It was a surprise to her.
After knowing what it was about, with the delicacy and tranquility that characterize it, he said: “Colombia must continue to be known for the talent that innovative people, artists, athletes and even space technicians produce every day, who are an example of this. the beautiful culture of our country “