Hi everyone, in this Mission to Mars video, we're going to be talking about the next step in developing a Mission to Mars and that's designing your spacecraft. Joining us today to help us understand the how and why of this step is Billy Allen, a Mechatronics engineer on the Mars Perseverance Rover. Billy, thanks for joining us today and welcome. Hi. Good to be here. So my first question has to do with your job. What does a Mechatronics engineer do? Sure. Mechanical engineering is my background and being a Mechatronics engineer, you need to have knowledge of more of a broad system overview between the mechanical structure, any electronics, sensors, motors, years, that sort of thing and make sure that works as a system. How long does it take to design a spacecraft? Sure. Now, the process, for the most part, always starts with an idea of a mission to go do. Let's go take this science measurement at this location or maybe take cool photos of this feature on whichever planet you're interested in. You then address big picture things. Once you reach your destination, are you orbiting it, are you driving around on the surface, then you focus in on the more detailed things. If you need wheels, how big do they need to be? What are they made out of, things like that? And at the end, you get to build whatever it is you design and test it. And that whole process is a couple of years, but it's broken into many different parts that are all super interesting. What factors do you take into consideration when designing a spacecraft? Sure. When designing a spacecraft, the choices you make in the design always come back to what is the spacecraft need to do? Does it need to take photos? Does it need to take other science measurements? How does it communicate home? And when you start working on those questions in detail, you say, okay, we need an antenna that's this size. We need wheels that can drive this fast. You select those components and through that, you will arrive at a overall rover or orbit or system that does what you need to do. How many times do you test a spacecraft before it's ready for launch? That is a very big question and it's very dependent on what you're trying to test. You might test a lot of samples of your specific type of steel or aluminum to make sure it has the strength you need. We've done a lot of 3D printed prototypes that you could call a test, but it's really just how big does this thing look in real life and how does it fit with its neighboring components on the spacecraft? Then once you actually start building whatever it is you've designed, you can do smaller subsystem tests. So maybe if you have a camera with a cover that protects it, how does the camera cover open and close? You might do tests of that in different environments, like make it really hot or make it really cold. At the end, once you have your vehicle built and it's ready to go, there's a lot of tests at that system level. Make sure that cameras can interact with the computers. Make sure driving works like you thought it was going to work. So at each phase of the project, your tests get bigger and bigger all with a goal of can the thing that I'm building do its intended task in its intended environment. You've mentioned a few different kinds of spacecraft. Is it better to send an orbiter, a lander, or a rover to a planet that you're planning to explore? Better is a hard thing to pick. Each of those three has its good applications. For example, if you send an orbiter, you can get those cool 360 degree maps of what does this planet or moon actually look like. And if you want to get up close photos of things that you just can't see from that far away, then you need to send something to the surface. The inside lander that recently went to Mars has equipment all over it that will measure properties of Mars geology. Those type of measurements can be done easily in just one place. Now, rovers are my personal favorite because that's what I've been working on during my time with JPL. Not say they're the best, but now you can actually go around to different locations looking for environments that could support life. Sometimes being able to drive around is a huge benefit of that. Thanks so much for joining us today, Billy. We really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us about designing a spacecraft. The next step in developing a mission to Mars. Cool. Thanks for having me. Have a good time. Now that you've heard why this step is important, you're ready to start designing your spacecraft. Stay tuned for the next step in developing a mission to Mars, launching your mission.