Engineering Team Develops Chip for Mars Rover
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Rover Curiosity would have a hard time completing its mission if it were not for a successful partnership between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a professor-student team at UT.
Ben Blalock, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and two graduate students—Stephen Terry, now an alumnus, and Robert Greenwell—designed a tiny microchip that weighs close to a paper clip and helps control the motors on the rover.