As the NASA Mars Rover mission lead, Nagin Cox advances our understanding of ourselves by visiting other planets. Nagin Cox is in charge of both the Curiosity and Perseverance missions on Mars. “I was never interested in being an astronaut, because the robots go first and they go farther.”
Humanity’s journeys to the Red Planet are a prime example of what we call ‘memberful’, demonstrating how through collective action, we’re capable of nudging the course of mankind in a new direction.
Photo: Harald Dunnink in conversation with Nagin Cox
As a passionate advocate for representation and diversity in STEM, Nagin inspires countless individuals worldwide. Listen now to discover what it takes to lead a team that works 140 million miles from home.
This eye-opening design podcast is a visual journey too. Browse the episode gallery on memberful.design. The podcast is now live on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
This episode was recorded in June 2023. Everything stated by Cox is stated on her behalf and is not representative of NASA’s opinions or positions.
Highlights
5 gallery highlights from this episode:
- Nagin Cox calls herself a first-generation Martian. She works a fulltime job on another planet — where each day is 40 minutes longer than on Earth. Working remotely from Earth, that presents some interesting challenges. Watch Nagin’s inspiring (and funny!) TED talk, with more than 2 million views.
- Nagin is a Tactical Mission Lead on the Perseverance Rover — sent to Mars on 30 July 2020 to find evidence of past life on the planet. The mission’s visual identity was designed by House of van Schneider. The minimal logo condenses Mars, the Earth and the rover into three simple, flat shapes. Find the details on Dezeen.
- In 2015, an asteroid was named after Nagin. The discoverers of the asteroid saw a presentation by Nagin in Italy and were so inspired by her stories of exploring Mars, that they named the asteroid after her. The asteroid was discovered on Feb 13 1996 by U. Munari and M. Tombelli at Cima Ekar, see the full story here.
- The rover is researching if there ever was microbial life on Mars. It collects soil and rock samples for future return to Earth. Nagin says: “From a great distance, you have scientists trying to interpret what they’re seeing well enough to select samples that are literally going to be priceless, just like the moon rocks are. They know that when those samples come back, they’re going to be doled out to the institutions of the world to collectively decide if we think there was ever life on Mars.” You can read more about the Perseverance mission on the NY Times.
Photography: NASA
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