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About

Tyler Del Sesto is a robotics engineer whose work is central to NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, specializing in autonomous navigation and robotic operations on extraterrestrial surfaces. His key research areas include surface mobility software, robotic arm manipulation, and strategic sample collection—critical technologies for enabling rovers to traverse challenging terrain and perform complex tasks independently. Del Sesto’s most cited paper, “A ROS-based Simulator for Testing the Enhanced Autonomous Navigation of the Mars 2020 Rover” (2020, 26 citations), details the development and testing of Enhanced Navigation (ENav) software, which allows Perseverance to autonomously navigate more efficiently over rugged landscapes. His subsequent work, “First 210 solar days of Mars 2020 Perseverance Robotic Operations” (2022, 20 citations), provides a comprehensive account of the mission’s early robotic activities, including mobility, arm operations, and the Ingenuity helicopter, offering valuable lessons learned. Notably, his 2024 paper on the first sample depot on Mars documents the historic deposition of 10 sealed sample tubes at the Three Forks site—a milestone for future sample return. With over 48 combined citations, Del Sesto’s contributions are foundational to advancing autonomous planetary exploration and the long-term goal of returning Martian samples to Earth.