Join Schmid College for a talk with Charles (Chuck) Baker, Mars Sample Return Mission System Engineering Operations Manager at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), as he discusses the current Mars exploration mission and plans for future exploration. 

Chuck joined JPL in 2006 and became the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity) project lead Mission Planner for launch, cruise approach and EDL and later became an operations team member. In 2012, Chuck joined the NASA/JPL Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission as Flight Operations engineer. In 2014, he began work in JPL’s National Security Programs Office where he also became a group supervisor for the instrument systems engineering division, while also working on the Mars 2020 (Perseverance) Rover mission as lead mission planner. In 2018, Chuck was chosen to be the Mission Systems Engineering manager for the NASA/ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) project and is now working on JPL’s Mars Sample Return Mission. 
   
Prior to JPL, Chuck served in the US armed forces by first serving as a US Naval submarine officer and later in the US Air Force, California Air National Guard and retired at the rank of Captain. Chuck earned a Master’s degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from University of Colorado, and a Master of Science degree in Information Systems and Technologies and is also currently pursuing a Ph.D., in Information Systems and Technologies at Claremont Graduate University.

Virtual Event via Zoom. 
Link will be sent closer to event to all registered participants.