Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – NASA Flight Director on the Perseverance rover mission Diana Trujilo had to face many obstacles before taking her current position. He is a native of Colombia, facing the divorce of his parents and at the age of 17 he decided to move to the US with pocketed US $ 300 or around Rp. 4.3 million.
When he came to the US, Trujilo could not speak English. She also does housework to pay for her studies and only joined NASA in 2007, quoted from CBS News, Monday (9/7/2021).
Experience as an immigrant motivates Trujilo to give his best. Moreover, he came from a country with limited opportunities.
According to him, everything that comes to him is seen as an opportunity. Trujilo never complains about the work he does and continues to be grateful.
“I don’t see ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this work at night’, or ‘I can’t believe I’m cleaning. I can’t believe I’m cleaning the bathroom right now,'” Trujilo said.
She added, “It’s more like ‘I’m glad I have a job and I can buy food and have a house to sleep in. So I think all of those things make me, even today, help me see life differently.”
Trujilo is currently part of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and is working with the team that created the robotic arm to collect rock samples on Mars.
“Understanding whether we are alone in the universe is the ultimate question. I hope that within a year of surface operations on Mars, we can answer that question as soon as possible,” Trujilo said.
He explained why he was still in space. That is to prove the assumptions of some members of his family wrong.
“I want, especially the men in my family, to know women can add value. This comes from wanting to prove to them that we are important,” he said.
That motivation eventually developed as a student at the University of Florida. At that time he didn’t know what he wanted to do until he saw a magazine with pictures of female astronauts, the space shuttle, and Earth on his way to meet the dean.
It was then that Trujilo chose aerospace engineering as his major. She noticed the line of majors was filled with non-Spanish-speaking people and Trujilo was one of the few women in line.
(roy/roy)
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