Clara O'Farrell (born 1986) is a guidance and control engineer for the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) group at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab[2] who is known for her work on the Mars Perseverance Rover Mission.[3] Her education and research in aerospace engineering focused in propulsion and fluid dynamics, leading her to work for NASA.[3]
Early life and education
She was raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina.[4] O'Farrell's heritage is Irish and she grew up speaking English at home with her mother and grandparents.[5] At the age of 19, she moved to the United States to attend college where she realized aerospace was another path for her aspirations.[6] In 2008, O'Farrell earned her Bachelors of Science in Engineering (BSE), Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University[7] in New Jersey. As a child, O'Farrell was always interested in science and one of her childhood dreams was to be a marine biologist. As she grew older, she thought her options in science were limited to medicine or engineering.[6] She has credited both her mother and her grandmother for inspiring her work ethic and learning how the world works.[8] In May 2013, she completed her Ph.D at California Institute of Technology in Control and Dynamical Systems, with a focus on the fluid dynamics of jellyfish swimming in John Dabiri's group.[1][9]
Research and projects
Miguel San Martin inspired O'Farrell and helped hone her interest in working in aerospace and at NASA.[10] As an undergrad, she joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab where O'Farrell worked with John Dabiri, studying the contraction movements of jellyfish as a way to understand and model vortex rings.[11][12][13] Also, she worked with Dabiri on Nested contour-dynamic models for vortex rings and vortex wakes. This led her to officially start working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in 2013.[7]
In 2020, O'Farrell was part of the Mars Perseverance Rover Mission for NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab as a guidance and control engineer. She was a member of the group that created the supersonic parachute for the rover that landed on Mars in February 2021.[7] Her simulations on spacecraft trajectory helped guide the Perseverance mission's entry, descent, and landing on Mars.[14] As of 2022, O’Farrell is working on developing a supersonic parachute that will be used to collect soil samples from Mars.[6] O'Farrell has been vocal about her desire to inspire other women and minorities who doubt their abilities in science.[6][8]
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