We would like to express our profound gratitude to the more than 500 Columbus employees who have worked in partnership with JPL to make the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover landing a resounding success. These employees directly contributed to this mission, and their individual and collective expertise helped ensure today’s historic accomplishment.
Columbus employees led efforts related to Mechanical Design, Fabrication, Quality Assurance, Testing, Validation, and Systems Engineering. We participated in the development of the Terrain-Relative Navigation system, which autonomously helps the rover avoid hazards during landing, as well as the Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent, and Landing Instrumentation 2 (MEDLI2) sensor suite, which gathers crucial data during the journey through the Martian atmosphere.
This achievement is massive in scale and significance. The largest, most complex Rover—saddled with the most expensive and cutting-edge technologies ever developed, has, at last, arrived on Mars—safely! It is prepared to traverse, photograph, and collect samples. It is built for the long-haul, engineered to the exact specifications for optimal performance, and ruggedly constructed to withstand the harsh Martian terrain.
We at Columbus are filled with tremendous pride today and are honored to have served alongside the NASA and JPL community on this historic mission. In the face of a global pandemic that affected each of us uniquely, Columbus employees endured great personal obstacles to achieve this remarkable moment. They took the name of the Rover to heart and demonstrated the “perseverance” and “ingenuity” that this mission personifies!
Congratulations to everyone at JPL and NASA for the successful landing of Perseverance!