Georgia Tech grad now living on Martian time as part of Perseverance rover project
ByWSBTV.com News Staff
Luke Walker For the last six years Walker, a Georgia Tech B.S. and MBA grad, has worked on the Mars Perseverance project in several different roles. (PHOTO: Georgia Tech)
ByWSBTV.com News Staff
ATLANTA — If you think you have a weird work schedule, odds are Luke Walker has you beat.
Walker is currently a flight system systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
For the last six years Walker, a Georgia Tech B.S. and MBA grad, has worked on the Mars Perseverance project in several different roles.
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Look at Mars NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving.
This image was acquired on Mar. 3, 2021 (Sol 12) at the local mean solar time of 11:46:25. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
Look at Mars NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Right Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving.
This image was acquired on Mar. 3, 2021 (Sol 12) at the local mean solar time of 13:27:00. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
Look at Mars NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving.
This image was acquired on Mar. 3, 2021 (Sol 12) at the local mean solar time of 13:39:51. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
Look at Mars NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving.
This image was acquired on Mar. 3, 2021 (Sol 12) at the local mean solar time of 13:29:39. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
Look at Mars NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving.
This image was acquired on Mar. 3, 2021 (Sol 12) at the local mean solar time of 12:49:10. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
Look at Mars NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving.
This image was acquired on Mar. 3, 2021 (Sol 12) at the local mean solar time of 13:39:51. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
Look at Mars NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its onboard Left Navigation Camera (Navcam). The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving.
This image was acquired on Mar. 3, 2021 (Sol 12) at the local mean solar time of 12:52:16. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
In order for him to do his job he has to be on Mars time, which has more hours in a day than Earth time.
“A Mars day is 25 hours,” said Walker. “During early operations, you’re trying to optimize everything, so we only operate the rover during Martian daytime. We sync our schedule to when the rover is awake, so every day, I wake up 40 to 50 minutes later than the last day. Daytime could be from noon to 10 p.m. and it slowly rotates around.”
Since the rover landed on Mars in February, Walker has held two different roles.
“During the first five days on Mars, he worked on the surface operations transition, where he had to make sure Perseverance was safe and healthy and started configuring the rover. Since then, he has served as team lead for the mechanisms chair, where he analyzes data that is sent back from the rover,”Georgia Tech said in a news release.
Walker said one of the most exciting parts of the project for him so far was landing day, where he watched Perseverance land on Mars from mission control.
NASA’s Perseverance rover extracts first oxygen from Mars
“It was a really interesting experience because you have no control. We plan everything months in advance, and we’ve already put the plans on board the rover, so we don’t do any commanding live,” Walker said. “All we are doing is sitting and watching, holding on, and hoping for the best. That moment when I heard ‘Touchdown confirmed, Perseverance is safe on Mars,’ it was just a huge relief.”
Walker and his crew got the first images from Mars about two to three hours after it landed.
“It’s a phenomenal feeling to see those pictures,” Walker said. “I think for the first five days, every time an image would come back, everyone would crowd around the computer screen and just watch. No matter what we were doing, we would stop and pause and look at the pictures. Even if you were supposed to be doing something more important, getting these pictures back from another planet or a place no one has ever seen is pretty neat.”
Walker credits his love for space to “visiting the Kennedy Space Center and Johnson Space Center when he was a kid. Initially wanting to be an astronaut, Walker, a Texas native, realized that he needed to get involved in aerospace engineering, which eventually led him to Georgia Tech.”
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Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life This photo made available by NASA shows the first image sent by the Perseverance rover showing the surface of Mars, just after landing in the Jezero crater, on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. (NASA via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life This photo made available by NASA shows the second image sent by the Perseverance rover showing the surface of Mars, just after landing in the Jezero crater, on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. (NASA via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life In this photo provided by NASA, members of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover team watch in mission control as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life In this photo provided by NASA, members of NASA's Perseverance rover team react in mission control after receiving confirmation the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The landing of the six-wheeled vehicle marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around the planet on successive days last week. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life In this photo provided by NASA, members of NASA's Perseverance rover team react in mission control after receiving confirmation the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The landing of the six-wheeled vehicle marks the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around the planet on successive days last week. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life In this photo provided by NASA, members of the Perseverance Mars rover team study data on monitors in mission control, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The landing of the six-wheeled vehicle would mark the third visit to Mars in just over a week. Two spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China swung into orbit around the planet on successive days last week. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life In this illustration made available by NASA, the Perseverance rover casts off its spacecraft's cruise stage, minutes before entering the Martian atmosphere. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life This illustration provided by NASA depicts the Mars 2020 spacecraft carrying the Perseverance rover as it approaches Mars. Perseverance's $3 billion mission is the first leg in a U.S.-European effort to bring Mars samples to Earth in the next decade. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life In this illustration made available by NASA, the spacecraft containing the Perseverance rover slows down using the drag generated by traveling through the Martian atmosphere. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life In this illustration made available by NASA, the Perseverance rover, with its heat shield facing the planet, begins its descent through the Martian atmosphere. (NASA/JPL-Caltech via AP)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life A full-scale model of the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity is displayed for the media at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life Images from Nasa are streamed live showing the landing of NASA's Perseverance on Mars, shown on Piccadilly Lights in central London, Thursday Feb. 18, 2021. The Mars rover landing mission begins it's search for traces of life after the successful landing, to explore and collect samples for future return to Earth. Eros statue top left. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life Lori Glaze, Director of NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Planetary Science Division, left, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA Associate Administrator Science Mission Directorate, and Michael Watkins, Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory react after receiving confirmation the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Photos: NASA rover Perseverance lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA Associate Administrator Science Mission Directorate, raises his arms, center, with Lori Glaze, Director of NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Planetary Science Division, right, as they walk with members of NASA's Perseverance rover team after receiving confirmation the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
