Autonomous Flight and Landing on Mars with Behçet Açikmeşe (Part 1)

Khari Douglas interviews Dr. Behçet Açikmeşe. Behçet was a technologist and a senior member of the Guidance and Control (G&C) Analysis Group at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 2003 to 2012 where he developed guidance, control, and estimation algorithms for formation-flying spacecraft and distributed networked systems, proximity operations around asteroids and comets, and planetary landing. He is currently a Professor in Aeronautics & Astronautics, as well as Electrical & Computer Engineering, at the University of Washington and a member of their Autonomous Controls Lab. In this episode, Dr. Açikmeşe discuss his time at JPL and what it takes to land a rover on Mars. Timestamps to jump to certain topics below: Intro - (00:00) Background and Joining NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory -(01:23) Landing a Rover on Mars - (06:00) Other Projects at JPL -(19:46) Sensors on Spacecraft - (27:10) Landing on Earth vs. Mars - (31:42) Working at JPL and Career Advice - (33:55) Outro - (40:56)