Emirati woman researcher has hand in Mars Rover programme’s success

An Abu Dhabi female NASA research fellow has returned home from a four-month internship at the US Space agency. Ghena Al Hanae has completed her mission work, which called for providing research support for NASA’s Mars Rover educational and outreach programmes with the goal of inspiring the next generation to pursue science and technology careers involving Mars research and exploration. The NASA Lunar Science Institute, where Al Hanae worked, played an integral part in NASA’s Curiosity Rover programme — in terms of software design, sensor integration and wind tunnel testing. According to Al Hanae, “Being able to participate in such a prestigious programme and hone my practical work and research skills at NASA was a great opportunity to develop myself in different areas such as education, culture and working teams. My work involved a small rover used to bring hands-on space exploration experiences to students, scientists, engineers and the public to engage the future generation in charge of rovers such as the Curiosity Rover. Representing my country was a great honour and a responsibility at the same time as I was setting an example for the young female Emirati.” In addition to Al Hanae’s work at NASA Ames Research Centre in Silicon Valley, California, another successful UAE intern’s mission work has focused on the analysis of remote sensing data, phone sats (joint venture with Google to connect mobile phones to an orbiting satellite), wind-turbine research for use in avionics, space shuttle solid waste processing and infrastructure, green building sustainability systems, and more. From gulftoday