Page 51 - Discover Fall 2021
P. 51
A Soft Touch
For Curiosity's Sake
By Frank Ernandes
August 6, 2012… just past midnight – It part of the Terminal Landing Radar on this
was well past my normal bedtime, but I was mission. Its purpose: to sense the height of
determined to stay awake. The event that was the vehicle as it approached the surface of
unfolding on my computer screen was not the planet. This component was critical to
unlike many others that I had experienced the control of the descent and eventual soft
in the past. This knowledge did little to landing of Curiosity, an exploratory rover, on
relieve the tension, or undo the knots in my the surface of Mars.
stomach. My stress level was tied directly to
With so much on the line, going “back to
the success or failure of the mission at hand. I
the drawing board” is not on the table. One
remained riveted to my computer monitor, as
of the appeals of this type of work to me is the
the minutes and seconds ticked by, hoping for
absence of failure as an option. Regardless
the best, and fearing the worst.
of how many times I may have borne such
The mission began on November 26, 2011 responsibility, the thrill (and the tension) of
with the launch of a satellite from Cape the moment are as great as ever. No matter
Canaveral, Florida. More than eight months how much lab testing and simulation we do,
later, after traveling over many million of the proof of the pudding is in the eating,
miles in space, it was about to undergo the and at that moment, my pudding remained
first of many challenges: landing on Mars. untasted.
My interest in aerospace technology is I was experiencing what NASA engineers
far from a passing one. My 50+ year career described as the “seven minutes of terror”,
as an electronics engineer has been devoted during which time a series of mechanisms
to RF (radio frequency) applications within would deploy, including a parachute,
this exciting field. As a consultant to a small landing rockets, and a hovering sky crane,
microwave electronics company, I have culminating with (I hoped) a gentle
taken the lead on many such projects. In this touchdown on the surface of Mars. My part
case, my reputation was on board Odyssey, in this cosmic drama would play out last.
nearing the end of a 350 million mile journey
It would take about 14 minutes for the
through space, and about to face the ultimate
probe’s radio transmission signals to reach
reliability test.
Earth, which meant that as we received
I had served as the Program Manager for confirmation that it had entered the Martian
the proposal, design and implementation of atmosphere, it would actually already have
three critical microwave modules that were been on the planet’s surface for at least 7
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