NASA scientist is awarded an OU honorary degree

Posted on 20 November 2023 • Honorary Graduate

A NASA scientist who has been part of the space exploration teams of our solar system for three decades has been awarded an honorary degree by The Open University at a recent graduation ceremony in Manchester.

As part of a team, Dr Ashwin Vasavada has helped mankind visit Jupiter, Saturn, Earth’s Moon and the surface of Mars via the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Mission.

It was growing up in California where he started to dream about getting involved in space exploration – inspired by NASA’s Voyager and Viking spacecrafts.

A degree in geophysics and space physics followed, which led to a doctorate in planetary science. Now he works for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and is the project scientist for the Curiosity Rover Mission.

It’s here that he leads an international team of more than 500 scientists to explore the Gale Crater on Mars using the Rover’s instruments.

His ground-breaking work has led to many awards shared with NASA colleagues and he is now an honorary fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and has been recognised with a People Leadership Award from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

On receiving his Doctorate of the University, he said:

“I cannot be more proud to become forever linked with the OU through this honorary degree.”

He added:

“We have a saying at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory where I work, we say ‘Dare mighty things together’. Our work involves daring.

“We do things that are just on this side of impossible, like sending a one-ton, car-sized rover to Mars; having it fly down to the surface under its own rocket jetpack and then climb a mountain while carrying a scientific laboratory inside of it. We dared this mighty thing but we also dared it together.”

He drew parallels with the journeys OU students had travelled to reach their graduations:

“You have dared to dream about reaching this day, graduates. You have overcome so many challenges and with the support of your families and fellow graduates and friends, today, you have achieved mission success. You have basically landed on Mars.”