• Mars Rover Leader Peter Theisinger Receives National Trophy

    From baalke@1:2320/100 to sci.space.news on Tue Apr 4 23:53:44 2017
    From Newsgroup: sci.space.news


    https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6797

    Mars Rover Leader Peter Theisinger Receives National Trophy
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    March 28, 2017

    Peter Theisinger, who led the projects that developed the NASA rovers
    Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity and successfully placed them on Mars,
    will receive the 2017 National Air and Space Museum Trophy for Lifetime Achievement.

    Theisinger has worked on spacecraft missions to six planets since joining NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, in 1967. He is
    now a special assistant to the laboratory's director. Previous leadership roles included managing JPL's Engineering and Science Directorate and
    JPL's Spacecraft Systems Engineering Section.

    Theisinger was named as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people
    in the world in 2013, paired with JPL colleague Richard Cook. At different times, Theisinger and Cook each managed the Mars Exploration Rover Project, which built Spirit and Opportunity, and the Mars Science Laboratory Project, which built Curiosity. The former project still operates the golf-cart-size Opportunity, which landed with air-bag-cushioned bounces in 2004. The
    latter project operates the car-size Curiosity, which landed with a sky-crane maneuver in 2012.

    Theisinger will receive the lifetime achievement honor Wednesday evening, March 29, at a ceremony at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum ceremony in Washington.

    The museum presents this trophy annually to recognize past and present accomplishments in the management or execution of a scientific or technological

    project, a distinguished career of service in air and space technology,
    or a significant contribution in chronicling the history of air and space technology. Previous recipients include astronauts James Lovell, Neil Armstrong and John Glenn; scientists James Van Allen, Harold Masursky
    and Stamatios Krimigis; and engineer-managers Norm Augustine, John Casani, Burt Rutan and Simon Ramo.

    Theisinger was born in Fresno, California, in 1945 and now lives in La Crescenta, California. He graduated from Caltech in Pasadena, California,
    with a degree in physics. His career at JPL began with the Mariner 5 mission to Venus and has included contributions to the Voyager mission to the
    outer planets (launched in 1977 and still going) and the Galileo mission
    to Jupiter (launched in 1989 and concluded in 2003). His Mars experience
    dates back to the 1971 Mariner 9 orbiter mission to Mars.

    Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

    News Media Contact
    Guy Webster
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
    818-354-6278
    guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

    Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown
    NASA Headquarters, Washington
    202-358-1077 / 202-358-1726
    laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov / dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

    Alison Mitchell
    National Air and Space Museum, Washington
    202-633-2376
    mitchellac@si.edu

    2017-091

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