If you answered yes to any of the above questions, we’ve got a treat for you.

Miguel San Martin, a key team member in the design of Curiosity's entry, descent and landing (EDL) system, will speak next week at Georgia Tech. As guidance, navigation, and control chief engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory, San Martin played a key role in ensuring the mission’s success.

San Martin will speak at 9:05 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 14, in Guggenheim 442. He’ll spend just under an hour discussing the design challenges of Curiosity’s EDL system.

Weighing in at almost a ton, Curiosity required a big advance in EDL capability and performance. To accommodate it, NASA developed a new landing technology called the Sky Crane. (San Martin was a co-architect.)

Born and raised in Argentina, San Martin moved to the United States to attend college and then pursue a postgraduate degree. After earning a master’s in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he began work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Before taking on Curiosity, San Martin served as guidance, navigation, and control subsystem chief engineer for the Mars Pathfinder mission, which landed the first rover on Mars. In 2004, he reprised that role for the Spirit and Opportunity missions.