08/06/2021

#ASAE21 Game Changer: Curiosity is Key

Let your inner child run free

It turns out that maintaining a childlike curiosity is a great way to prepare for a mission to Mars. Especially when it’s one with a rover called “Curiosity.” A lot of what happened on NASA’s 2020 Mars mission, which touched down on the red planet February 18, might not have occurred without innate curiosity about what it would look like to enter, descend, and land on Mars—and to imagine what it would take to get a helicopter to fly on another planet.

“It all ties back to letting that inner child run free,” said Dr. Moogega Cooper, lead planetary protection engineer for Mars 2020, and part of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Cooper, a speaker at the 2021 ASAE Annual Meeting, will offer her insights on leadership during her Game Changer speech on August 17.

Don't Be Afraid to Fail

It’s not always easy—or intuitive—to let an inner child run free. Something could break, malfunction, or just not go as planned, which is probably why a lot of organizations are risk-averse. “You don’t want to fail so much that your company goes under,” Cooper said. But on the JPL team, she has flourished in an atmosphere where ideas are incubated and grown.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.