Diana Trujillo may have traveled a long distance to work as an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. But for the Colombian aerospace engineer, it was all worth it.
Diana Trujillo was one of millions who came to the United States in search of a better life and more opportunities.
She grew up in Cali, Colombia, and has always had a strong interest in science.
She aspired to work as a scientist for NASA.
She traveled from the turbulent streets of Cali, Colombia to the United States at the age of 17 with only $300 in her wallet. To help pay for her science degree at the University of Florida, she worked a variety of jobs, including as a housemaid. She applied to the NASA Academy with the help of tutors and mentors, and to her surprise, she was accepted. Trujillo joined NASA as an engineer in 2008.
But she never imagined she’d be able to make her dreams come true!
She is now an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, where she is in charge of a 45-person team.
The Persistence This group is working on the robotic arm for the Mars rover.
In 2018, Bancolombia, El Colombiano, and the Medellin mayor’s office aired “The Colombian Ambush,” an advertisement campaign created by a Texan agency commissioned by Bancolombia, El Colombiano, and the Medellin mayor’s office to combat misconceptions about Colombia depicted in countless Hollywood films, in which the country is reduced to a place of kidnappings, drug trafficking, and prostitutes.
On a global scale, the campaign was well-received. Three years later, on February 18, the Perseverance mission accomplished a historic feat by landing on Mars. Or perhaps a few…
Diana Trujillo was at the forefront of this new mission, which seeks evidence of microbial life on Mars billions of years ago.
She is the head of the engineering team that designed Perseverance’s robotic arm, as well as the voice that, for the first time in NASA history, recounted the rover’s landing on Mars in Spanish for the whole globe.
Diana Trujillo, on the other hand, was the first Latina migrant to enroll in a NASA Academy program.
An distinguished academic. Someone who, with her team, constructed the space agency’s most sophisticated robot and who, if such a thing occurs in the future, will most certainly be regarded as one of the persons who contributed to the progress of future Mars exploration and, who knows, settlement.
Sources:
aldianews.com
kcet.org
wfla.com