NASA Mars Rover
Julie Hambleton
Julie Hambleton
December 12, 2023 ·  5 min read

Woman Immigrates to US with $300; Now a Flight Director on NASA Mars Rover Team

Imagine arriving in a new country where you don’t speak the language and have next to no money in your bank account. That’s exactly what Diana Trujillo’s situation was when she first arrived in America from Columbia. Today, she is the Mars Rover Flight Director. This is how she got there. (1)

How Diana Trujillo Became The Mars Rover Flight Director

Diana Trujillo grew up in Cali, Columbia. At the time, there was a lot of violence in her country, and women weren’t expected to do much more than have children, raise a family, and take care of their husbands. She used to lie under the stars and imagine what else must be up there. In her heart, she knew there must be more than what she was living in. (1)

“My parents got divorced when I turned 12. After that happened, my mom had nothing. No money. We didn’t even have food. We’d boil an egg and we’d cut it in half, and that was our lunch that day,” she recalled. “I remember just laying down on the grass and looking at the sky and thinking, ‘Something has to be out there that’s better than this. Some other species that treats themselves better or values people better.'” (1)

At the age of 17, she got on a plane to Miami with just $300 in her pocket and spoke almost no English. Today, she is the Mars Rover Flight Director for NASA. When she first arrived in America, however, she worked as a housekeeper to put herself through community college. (1)

Transfer To The University of Florida

As you can imagine, Trujillo is a brilliant woman. In university, she majored in aerospace engineering. She says her brains, however, were not her biggest asset. Rather, her work ethic and desire to succeed pushed her forward. (2)

“I saw everything coming my way as an opportunity,” she said. “I didn’t see it as, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this job at night,’ or ‘I can’t believe that I’m cleaning. I can’t believe that I’m cleaning a bathroom right now.’ It was just more like, ‘I’m glad that I have a job and I can buy food and have a house to sleep.’” she told CBS. “I think that all of those things make me, and even today, helps me see life differently. I see it more as every instant I need to be present because every instance matters.” (2)

The First Immigrant Hispanic Woman

Trujillo applied to the NASA Academy in her senior year of college. Not only did she get in, but she was the first immigrant Hispanic woman to ever be accepted into the program. She began working for NASA full-time and became a telecom systems engineer for the Mars Curiosity Rover in 2009. In 2012, that spacecraft successfully landed on Mars. (1)

Today, she is an aerospace engineer at The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was the flight director for the Perseverance Rover, which landed on Mars this past February. As a Hispanic woman, pushing herself towards her dreams has been very important for her. She wants to show other Hispanic women (and men, too) that Latin women are smart, capable, and can be anything they want to be with hard work and determination. (2)

“As a little girl, I saw the women in my family give up a lot. It gave me the tenacity that I needed to say I’m not going to give up on my dream,” she told TechCrunch. “I want to be out there looking back in, showing my family that women have value, that women matter.” (1)

Related: Girl, 12, heads to college with plans to work for NASA

Being Mars Rover Flight Director and Imposter Syndrome

To the outsider, it looks like Trujillo is this powerful woman who goes into the world fearlessly chasing her dreams. Though she is certainly courageous, she has questioned herself many times. As one of the few Latin people working in science, let alone Latinas working in science, it was an intimidating place to be. (2)

“It was very petrifying because you’re doing this ginormously long line and every step of the way, you’re [thinking] like, ‘You shouldn’t be here … why are you here,'” she explained. (2)

For many, the added pressure of representing your culture in every move you make is very intimidating. For Trujillo, she saw it more as an opportunity. She relishes the opportunity to prove to the world that people like her are just as capable as anyone else.

“I’m walking in there and every single thing that I do, I’m representing my country, my culture, my heritage, my people, and I have to give my best every single time,” she says. “I get to elevate and amplify my culture and all the countries that speak Spanish by sending a message to everybody that we’re here, we’re present,” (2)

Next Steps

Trujillo hosted NASA’s first-ever Spanish language broadcast for a planetary landing when she landed the Rover on Mars. She believes this is important, as it will allow Spanish-speaking children to have role models and encourage them to dream big. The show, Juntos Perseveramos” (Together We Persevere), has more than 2.5 million views on YouTube. (2)

“The abuelas, the moms or dads, the uncles, los primos, like everyone has to see this,” she said. “And they have to see a woman in there, too. So, that they can turn around to the younger generation and say she can do it, you can do it.” (2)

For now, she will keep her eyes open for more opportunities, as well as open doors for other people like her to achieve their dreams, too.

Keep Reading: Woman given 3 days to live at birth graduates Medgar Evers College

Sources

  1. Meet NASA’s Flight Director of Mars Perseverance, Who Came to U.S. with $300 and Cleaned Bathrooms.” People. Rachel DeSantis. March 01, 2021.
  2. She came to the U.S. with only $300 and worked housekeeping jobs to pay for school. Now she’s a flight director for NASA’s Mars Perseverance.” CBS News. Christopher Brito. March 1, 2021.