A spectacular sunset
on Mars. It was one of the hundreds of photographs that the Spirit
and Opportunity rovers beamed back, inspiring
a new craze for the Red Planet. But for Shonte Wright, ’97,
a thermal systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, the frigid Martian night that followed the sunset
was the ultimate test for the systems she had worked on.
As one of the chief designers of the thermal systems on the Mars
Exploration Rover mission, Wright helped create and test
the heating systems that protect the hundreds of tiny solar powered
motors. It is these motors that allow the rovers to roll, rotate
and bore into rock. Encased in a radiation resistant Kapton and
Teflon laminate, the wirewound and etched foil circuit heaters
are paper thin, flexible, and most important—because every
ounce counts on the 396 pound rover—they must be lightweight.
It is a critical aspect of the mission on a planet where temperatures
can drop from 32 to minus 140 degrees Fahrenheit in just a few
hours. “Anything that moves on a rover has a motor and
every motor has a heater and a temperature sensor,” Wright
says. “Without the heaters, the rover dies.”
During her tenure with JPL, Wright has garnered several NASA
awards and, with the current Mars mission exceeding expectations,
she is looking forward to new challenges. Next up, preparing
for
the 2009 launch of an unmanned mission to search for Earth-sized
planets and map the galaxy. With a new push for a manned mission
to follow the rovers, the future is full of possibilities.
“
Maybe it will be my kids landing on Mars,” she says. “They
can stick the flag in the ground for mommy.” 
|
