Carina Umaña has been at JPL for five years.
Photo: Carina Umaña / Kindness
Carina Umaña, 34, was part of the working group of GODMOTHER who made history this week by getting a rover on Mars.
The native of Santa Ana, Savior, is working at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which is located in Pasadena and has followed the process of the perseverance mission that successfully brought this space exploration vehicle to the Red Planet.
He says that when he saw the device land could not contain the tears of emotion and confesses that it took almost three and a half years of work for this to happen.
Umaña says he began studying criminal justice at Pasadena City College (CCP). “It was only out of curiosity that I took an elective electronics class and that’s how I fell in love [de esta profesión]”, reveals.
Today he is an electronics development technician on the NASA team. That is, it works by building the electronic part of the prototypes.
“Engineers are the ones in charge of research and design. They come to me and say, “Do you think you can do this?”. So I look for the pieces and build it ”.
“I’m very proud. We don’t all have this opportunity to work in a place like JPL. It’s incredible, because there are projects where we have only one chance. [para que salgan bien]”, Umaña explains.
Tell young Latinos who would like to work in that career “Don’t give up because anyone who wants to touch it, you have to be patient and persistent”. It even indicates that there are engineers who have asked to enter the entity “over 200 times”. “We have to insist,” she says confidently.
Related: José Hernández, the astronaut who was a farmer in California, is motivated by the mission
Carina considers it important to have Latin representation in important institutions, as in her case at NASA: “You have to believe in yourself. Sometimes, where we come from, there are no opportunities. “
She is the mother of three children and, when asked if she has time to develop her role as a mother and make history as a professional, she says “yes, anything can be done … One as a woman always has the power to do everything. “.
And he adds that you shouldn’t believe that because you have children, you can’t. “There is always a way to do things. What can’t a woman do? We are invincible “, he laughs.
What was sent to the Red Planet?
Perseverance is a vehicle for exploration, something like a versatile space navigator. It took off from Earth more than six months ago and, after traveling nearly 300 million miles, reached Mars on January 18.
The goal is to explore and see if there are microfossils and signs of past life on the site, CNN reported. Finally, the collection of rock and soil samples is planned; In addition, record audio in the months when the astromobile remains in place.