Swati Mohan

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology

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About

Dr. Swati Mohan is a pioneering aerospace engineer whose research focuses on autonomous on-orbit assembly, modular space structures, and educational robotics for space exploration. Her most influential work includes the "Assembly of a Large Modular Optical Telescope (ALMOST)" project (27 citations), which demonstrated the feasibility of robotic assembly for next-generation space telescopes too large to fit within a launch fairing. She further advanced this field through her "Dynamic Control Model Calculation" (17 citations), creating a model generation architecture enabling robots to autonomously reconfigure during assembly sequences. Dr. Mohan also co-founded the ZERO-Robotics program (12 citations), an MIT-Aurora Flight Sciences initiative that allows high school students to program satellites aboard the International Space Station, inspiring future engineers. Her research on "On-Orbit Assembly of Flexible Space Structures with SWARM" (9 citations) explored cost-effective robotic construction of large space structures, reducing reliance on human-assisted assembly. With over 65 total citations, Dr. Mohan’s work bridges theoretical modeling and hardware demonstrations, establishing foundational technologies for future space infrastructure. Notably, she served as the Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Operations Lead for NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, successfully landing the rover on Mars in February 2021.