Women in Engineering, Aeronautics and Astronautics to sponsor talk by NASA Mars scientist
November 12, 2014
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Michelle Munk |
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Michelle Munk, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center, will speak at Purdue on Nov. 20 about her career.
The talk, "From the Beach to Mars: One Engineer's Journey," will be at 5:30 p.m. in Armstrong Hall, Room B061. It is sponsored by the Women in Engineering Program and the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics and is free and open to the public.
Most recently, Munk worked on instrumentation of the heat shield on the Mars Science Laboratory. The MSL heat shield instrumentation was the most extensive ever sent to Mars and returned an invaluable data set that is influencing the missions of the future.
Munk will share insights about the limitations of current systems for landing humans on Mars and discuss how NASA is approaching that challenge for the future.
Since 2013, Munk has been principal investigator for Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) Technologies within NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate. In this position, she coordinates NASA's EDL investments across nine programs in the directorate.
Munk, who has a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech University, has been a NASA employee for more than 26 years. Her technical background is in mission planning, flight mechanics and trajectory simulation for Mars advanced mission studies, both robotic and human.
She has won several NASA group and individual achievement awards, including the Space Flight Awareness Award and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.
Writer: Judith Barra Austin, 765-494-2432, jbaustin@purdue.edu
Source: Jennifer Merzdorf, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics marketing and communication administrator, 765-496-0291, jmerzdo@purdue.edu
