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MiMi Aung

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MiMi Aung
Born1968 (age 56–57)
EducationBSEE 1988, MS 1990 Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Children2
Awards100 Women
Scientific career
InstitutionsJet Propulsion Laboratory

MiMi Aung (born 1968) is a Burmese-American engineer and project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She is a lead engineer on the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity, the first extraterrestrial aircraft.[1]

Aung came to the United States at age 16 and studied engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her parents had met at the university and Aung was born in the United States, though her family returned to Burma when she was 2 years old.[2]

On April 19, Aung served as team lead for NASA’s first helicopter flight on Mars. It “was an incredible moment,”  Aung said of Ingenuity’s 39-second flight, which is drawing comparisons to the Wright brothers’ first flight on Earth in 1903 for its promise for future discovery and innovation. “This morning our dream came true.”

Early life and family

MiMi Aung’s parents met in the United States when they were studying for their doctorates. Her mother, Hla Hla Sein, was the first woman from Myanmar to earn a doctoral degree in mathematics.[3][4][5][6]Aung was born in Illinois and returned to Myanmar with her parents when she was two and a half years old.[7][6][3] When she was 11, the family moved to Malaysia. At the age of 16, her parents arranged for her to return to the U.S. and stay with some friends in Illinois while she finished her education.[8]

Education

Aung studied electronic engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and earned her master's degree in 1990. Her master's thesis dealt with communications and signal processing.[9] During her master's program one of her professors mentioned JPL's work in deep space exploration.

Research and career

Teddy Tzanetos, MiMi Aung and Bob Balaram monitoring a helicopter flight

Aung joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in 1990, where she has worked in projects related to spaceflight and the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN). She started her career working in the Radio Frequency and Microwave Subsystems Section of the DSN, where she developed and tested algorithms for the Block V Receiver.[9] She deployed the digital receiver at each of the world's three DSN complexes, before working on monopulse radar systems. The monopulse radar systems were used in combination with the 34 m antennas for the DSN. She worked on the 240-GHz radiometer for the Earth Orbiting System Microwave Limb Sounder.[7]

Her next project involved the StarLight two spacecraft interferometer, for which she designed the autonomous formation radio frequency flying sensor.[10] She was selected as the project element manager of formation flying the Terrestrial Planet Finder's formation flying program.[7][11] After funding for the Terrestrial Planet Finder was indefinitely delayed, the project was canceled in 2011. Aung was made group supervisor of the Guidance, navigation, and control sensors group. In this capacity she created sensor technologies for spaceflight missions.[7] She became increasingly interested in autonomous space exploration and was made manager of the section in 2010.[7] She is a member of the Psyche spacecraft project team.[12]

In 2013 she became Deputy Manager of the Autonomous Systems Division,[13] and in 2015 lead for the Mars Helicopter.[7] As the atmosphere of Mars is so thin, the Mars Helicopter blades encounter considerably less gas, and therefore, must spin faster than they would do on Earth.[14] The first flight tests of the Mars Helicopter took place within the JPL space simulator in early 2019.[15][16][17] The total cost of the helicopter is around $23 million and it weighs less than 1.8 kg.[18][19] The helicopter was launched attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover in July 2020 as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission.[20][21] The Perseverance rover successfully landed on the Martian surface on February 18, 2021. On February 20, 2021, NASA's JPL received its first status report from the Mars Ingenuity helicopter via the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It was successfully deployed on April 3, 2021, and on April 19 made the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another planet.[22][23]

Public engagement

Aung is an expert for The Planetary Society[24] and has written for Spaceflight.[25] She was selected as one of the top 100 Women in the world by the BBC in 2019.[26] Aung installed a webcam in the cleanroom at JPL that allowed the public to watch the development of the helicopter.[27]

Aung featured in the 2019 documentary Space Queens along with several other women who were inspired by Apollo 11. The footage was archival and mentioned her involvement in taking humanity to Mars with the Perseverance rover in 2020, working in particular on the project for the Ingenuity helicopter that could demonstrate powered flight in Mars' atmosphere.[28]

Ingenuity Mars flight

On April 19, 2021, the Ingenuity Mars helicopter became the first spacecraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another world.[29]

As project manager of NASA’s Mars Helicopter Project, Aung oversees the diverse team that designed, built, tested and flew Ingenuity. She grew up in Burma, and other team members include chief engineer Bob Balaram, originally from India, and pilot Håvard Grip, originally from Norway.[30]

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m. EDT (3:46 a.m. PDT).[31]

The Ingenuity, is a technology demonstration to test powered, controlled flight on another world for the first time. It hitched a ride to Mars on the Perseverance rover. Once the rover reached a suitable "airfield" location, it released Ingenuity to the surface so it could perform a series of test flights over a 30-Martian-day experimental window.

The helicopter completed its technology demonstration after three successful flights. For the first flight on April 19, 2021, Ingenuity took off, climbed to about 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground, hovered in the air briefly, completed a turn, and then landed. It was a major milestone: the very first powered, controlled flight in the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars, and, in fact, the first such flight in any world beyond Earth. After that, the helicopter successfully performed additional experimental flights of incrementally farther distance and greater altitude.[32]

References

  1. ^ Park, Joseph (9 April 2021). "Illinois ECE Alumna Oversees NASA'S Ingenuity Helicopter Mission". The Grainger College of Engineering - Electrical & Computer Engineering. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Meet the Burmese American who led NASA's flight on Mars". U.S. Embassy in Georgia. 2021-04-25. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  3. ^ a b La, Phoebe (2020-10-08). "Burmese American engineer powering NASA to Mars". Myanmar Times.
  4. ^ "The engineer building a drone for Mars". www.pressreader.com. Retrieved 2019-10-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Apeles, Teena (2019-07-11). "A Woman's Place is in Space: Meet Eight Asian American Women Reaching for the Stars". KCET. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  6. ^ a b Detwiler, Jacqueline (2016-11-03). "What Happens Inside NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab Changes the World". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  7. ^ a b c d e f https://women.jpl.nasa.gov. "Women @ JPL". women.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2019-10-16. {{cite web}}: External link in |last= (help)
  8. ^ Powell, Corey S. (31 March 2021). "Deep-Space Ears, Interstellar Eyes, and Off-World Wings". Discover. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
  9. ^ a b "MiMi Aung". NAE Website. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  10. ^ Tien, J. Y.; Purcell, G. H.; Amaro, L. R.; Young, L. E.; Mimi Aung; Srinivasan, J. M.; Archer, E. D.; Vozoff, A. M.; Yong Chong (2003). "Technology validation of the autonomous formation flying sensor for precision formation flying". 2003 IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.03TH8652). 1: 1–140 vol.1. doi:10.1109/AERO.2003.1235048. ISBN 0-7803-7651-X. S2CID 111365995.
  11. ^ "MiMi Aung's schedule for LCHS Building Your Path". lchsbuildingyourpath2018.sched.com. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  12. ^ "The Full Psyche Team". Psyche Mission. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  13. ^ Lerner, Preston. "A Helicopter Dreams of Mars". Air & Space Magazine. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  14. ^ "How hard is it to fly a helicopter on Mars? NASA will soon find out". Los Angeles Times. 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  15. ^ "NASA's Mars Helicopter Completes Flight Tests". NASA/JPL. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  16. ^ "NASA helicopter passes key tests on road to Mars flight – Astronomy Now". Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  17. ^ "NASA completes successful test of Mars 'helicopter'". Evening Standard. 2019-03-29. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  18. ^ @jesswade (October 17, 2019). "🚀 Meet MiMi Aung, electronic engineer, one of @BBC's #100Women and lead for the @NASAJPL Mars 🚁. The helicopter weighs 1.8kg and cost ~$23 million. Aung grew up in 🇲🇲 and moved to the 🇺🇸 on her own aged 16 to study" (Tweet). Retrieved 19 February 2021 – via Twitter.
  19. ^ "Mars mission: Why Nasa is sending a helicopter to Mars in 2020". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  20. ^ "MiMi Aung". AEC Next. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  21. ^ "Mars Helicopter to launch as part of Nasa's 2020 mission". The Engineer. 2018-05-14. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  22. ^ "Nasa successfully flies small helicopter on Mars". BBC News. Retrieved 19 April 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. ^ "NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight". NASA. Retrieved 19 April 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ^ "MiMi Aung". www.planetary.org. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  25. ^ "Mimi Aung – Spaceflight Now". Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  26. ^ "BBC 100 Women 2019: Who is on the list?". 2019-10-16. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  27. ^ Wehner, Mike (2019-06-08). "NASA set up a webcam so you can watch them build the Mars 2020 rover". BGR. Retrieved 2019-10-16.
  28. ^ "Celebrating the Queens of Space". Napier. Retrieved Feb 19, 2021.
  29. ^ mars.nasa.gov. "Mars Helicopter". mars.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  30. ^ "Meet the Burmese American who led NASA's flight on Mars". U.S. Embassy in Georgia. 2021-04-25. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  31. ^ mars.nasa.gov. "NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Succeeds in Historic First Flight". NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
  32. ^ mars.nasa.gov. "Mars Helicopter". mars.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2021-05-14.
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