Juan R. Cruz, Ph.D., (born: January 5, 1946) is a Puerto Rican

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

who played an instrumental role in the design and development of the

Mars Exploration Rover NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, '' Spirit'' and '' Opportunity'', exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers to explore the Martian surface ...

(MER) and

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The overall objectives include investigati ...

(MSL) parachute.Denise Lineberry
Langley is 'All Systems Go' to Make History on Mars
NASA, 07.16.12 (Accessed Nov. 13 2012)

Early years

Cruz was born and raised in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

. After earning a B.S. (Bachelor of Science) in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, he briefly worked at

Beech Aircraft Corporation Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general aviati ...

Wichita, KS Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in ...

;Joan Ackermann-Blount and William Oscar Johnson,
Winging Into History
''Sports Illustrated,'' May 02, 1988 (accessed Nov. 13 2012) he then went on to earn a Ph.D. from

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

in aerospace engineering. During his years at MIT he was involved with the Monarch and

Daedalus In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, a ...

human powered aircraft A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is an aircraft belonging to the class of vehicles known as human-powered transport. Human-powered aircraft have been successfully flown over considerable distances. However, they are still primarily constructed a ...

teams.Hispanics@NASA LaRC Employees' Achievements

Career in NASA

Cruz is a senior

in the Exploration Systems Engineering Branch at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. His responsibilities are focused on research and development of

entry Entry may refer to: *Entry, West Virginia, an unincorporated community in the United States *Entry (cards), a term used in trick-taking card-games *Entry (economics), a term in connection with markets *Entry (film), ''Entry'' (film), a 2013 Indian ...

, descent, and landing (EDL) systems for robotic and human exploration missions. He was a member of the highly successful Mars Exploration Rover (MER) and Mars Science laboratory (MSL) projects that placed rovers on the surface of Mars in 2004 and 2012. His contributions to the MER and MSL projects centered on the design and qualification of the supersonic parachute.MIT MUSEUM PRESS RELEASE
/ref> In October, 2004 he was among a group of scientists who received an "Exceptional Achievement Award", from NASA.

Mars Exploration Rover mission

The MER-A rover, ''Spirit'', was launched on June 10, 2003, at 17:59 UTC, and MER-B, ''Opportunity'', on July 7, 2003. ''Spirit'' landed in

Gusev crater Gusev is a crater on the planet Mars and is located at and is in the Aeolis quadrangle. The crater is about 166 kilometers in diameter and formed approximately three to four billion years ago. It was named after Russian astronomer Matvey Gusev ...

on January 4, 2004, and ''Opportunity'' landed in the

Meridiani Planum The Meridiani Planum (alternately Meridiani plain, Meridiani plains, Terra Meridiani, or Terra Meridiani plains) is either a large plain straddling the equator of Mars and covered with a vast number of spherules containing a lot of iron oxide or ...

on the opposite side of Mars from ''Spirit'', on January 25, 2004. Cruz was among the scientists from Langley who helped develop the parachute which helped slow the spacecraft during entry, descent and landing. According to Cruz:

There are challenges to testing these parachutes because we can not test it at exactly the right conditions.
Earth's atmosphere The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing fo ...
is the one we have to work with and the
Martian atmosphere The atmosphere of Mars is the layer of gases surrounding Mars. It is primarily composed of carbon dioxide (95%), molecular nitrogen (2.8%), and argon (2%). It also contains trace levels of water vapor, oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and no ...
is very different, so you have to make adjustments in how you test the parachute. Another issue is the wind tunnel models we used in our tests were ten-percent scale models, about five feet in diameter.

Cruz is also a member of the

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

(Mars 2007),

(Mars 2011),Denise Lineberry
Getting Curiosity to Mars, One Simulation at a Time
NASA, 08.02.12 (Accessed Nov. 13 2012) and

Crew Exploration Vehicle The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) was a component of the U.S. NASA Vision for Space Exploration plan. A competition was held to design a spacecraft that could carry humans to the destinations envisioned by the plan. The winning design was th ...

EDL teams. He has undertaken research on advanced missions to Mars, including robotic airplanes, as well as having been a technical reviewer for the Genesis, Huygens, and Stardust missions. Prior to his involvement with exploration programs he conducted research on high-altitude

unmanned aircraft An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruz, Juan R. 1946 births Puerto Rican scientists Living people MIT School of Engineering alumni NASA people

Early years

Career in NASA

Mars Exploration Rover mission

See also

References