Incredible! How a professor is controlling NASA Mars rover Perseverance from flat above a salon in London
A 55-year-old NASA professor Sanjeev Gupta is controlling Mars rover Perseverance on the Red Planet from a flat above a salon on London.
A 55-year-old NASA professor named Sanjeev Gupta is controlling Mars rover Perseverance on the Red Planet from a flat above a salon on London, UK. Gupta, who is of Indian origin, is currently working from a one-bedroom flat in London at a time when he should be with other scientists at mission control in California, US.
The NASA professor is living in London because COVID-19 pandemic has forced him to work from home.
Prof Gupta told the Daily Mail: "I should be at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, in a series of offices each one about three times bigger than this lounge, full of hundreds of scientists and engineers with their heads buried in laptops surrounded by large screens. Nasa's headquarters is certainly a far cry from a one-bedroom flat."
Prof Gupta is a geology expert at Imperial College in London. Gupta and his team will direct Perseverance to spots to drill for samples from surface of the Red Planet. The sample will then be brought back to Earth in 2027.
Prof Gupta said that he needs to work at night and the rented an apartment so that his wife and children can sleep without any disturbance.