Sanjeev Gupta: Meet Indian-origin scientist controlling Perseverance rover from home

National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Perseverance Mars rover that made a historic landing on Mars last month, is being controlled by Indian-origin scientist, Professor Sanjeev Gupta, notably from his one-bedroom apartment in London, UK. The robotic explorer traveled for nearly seven months before landing on the Martian Planet and is also the most advanced astrobiology laboratory ever sent to another world. While another Indian-origin roboticist drove the rover to the Red Planet, Sanjeev Gupta is the one now controlling the £3billion life-on-Mars mission.

Gupta, 55, geology expert at London’s Imperial College is leading the team of scientists on the project to bring rock samples back from Mars and determine if the Martian Planet could support life. As per the Daily Mail report, over the coming weeks, Gupta along with his colleagues will be mapping out the required tasks for NASA’s Perseverance rover while giving direction about the spots to drill for samples on Mars. These samples will eventually be transported back to the Earth in 2027 through a separate UK-backed project. 

While talking to the media outlet, Gupta said, “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.”

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Why is Gupta working from one-bedroom apartment?

While NASA added another feather to its cap amid the COVID-19 pandemic, several scientists on the mission have been unable to go to their office due to travel restrictions. Gupta, who has a Ph.D. from Oxford University’s St Cross College, has reportedly rented the one-bedroom apartment so that his family is able to have a sound sleep. A day on Mars is apparently 40 minutes longer than that of Earth and the entire team of experts has been working round the clock which according to Gupta is “like being permanently jet-lagged.”

In the conversation with the media outlet, the 55-year-old also narrated an incident with a teenage son of one of his friends and said, “The teenage son of a friend of mine asked me if I could order the rover to do a wheelie for him. I told him, 'Not with my motoring skills'.' Many of the 400 scientists on the £3billion life-on-Mars mission are working from home because of travel restrictions.” Gupta followed the rover’s touchdown on Mars on February 18 from his Lewisham nerve center using at least five computers – two Apple Macs, an iPad, and two other screens for Zoom-style meetings with fellow scientists. 

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