Amitabh Ghosh

Amitabh Ghosh, an IITian from Kharagpur was a key member of the team who identified the landing site for ‘curiosity’, the Gale crater location.

“The best engineers have worked on missions. But Mars remains an unknown frontier. Until the rover lands successfully, you never know. The chances of toppling of the rover, however, are very low,” Ghosh told Deccan Herald.

The reason for selecting Gale Carter as the landing site is due to its sedimentary layers, which records the conditions during a specific geologic period.

Ghosh also played a prominent role in various other missions by NASA such as Mars Pathfinder Mission and MER (Mars Exploration Rover) mission. He was the only Asian in the Pathfinder mission by NASA.

Amitabh Ghosh has been honoured with NASA Mars Pathfinder Achievement Award in the year 1997 and the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Achievement Award in 2004, for his marvelous contributions.