In addition to creating composite mosaics from multiple pictures and adding optical corrections to the rovers’ images, Deen and his colleagues have used processes such as stereo imaging to deliver relevant data about Mars’ terrain for the rovers’ “drivers.” The software developer’s projects included the Magellan probe, which mapped out the surface of Venus using radar technology, and processing images from the pioneering Spirit and Opportunity rovers and their descendant missions. “And there was another phone interview where the connection was so bad that the interviewer could barely hear me.” After months of persistence, however, his evident skill and passion for space won him the job of his dreams, leading to out-of-this-world opportunities. ![]() “I was so shocked on the initial call that I didn’t know quite how to respond to their questions,” Deen remembered. A conversation with the laboratory’s recruiters led to a series of interviews, some of which nearly doomed his chances. When he stumbled upon JPL’s booth at a career fair in the Zachry Building, Deen’s future quickly fell into focus. “In the back of my mind, the two coolest places I could think of working were JPL or Lucasfilm,” he said. His love for the space sagas “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” made him fantasize about a career exploring the stars or bringing them to the silver screen. It was a gift he would not soon forget.ĭeen knew he had talents behind a keyboard but was unsure where he would apply them in the fledgling tech industry. “At the end, he turned to me and said, ‘There’s really no decision here.’” Upon his acceptance, Texas A&M offered the future Aggie a President’s Endowed Scholarship, the university’s most prestigious academic merit scholarship, which covered most of his campus expenses. ![]() “My dad and I received the royal treatment during our visit,” Deen recalled. Though he enjoyed his visit to The University of Texas, his father’s alma mater, he was blown away by the enthusiasm and passion of the Texas A&M computer science faculty. After spending the last decades helping parse out images from the final frontier, he and his wife, Gwen, planned an estate gift that will establish scholarships to inspire future Aggies to further explore and protect their home planet.Īn astute student, Deen placed near the top of his high school class and had the pick of the litter when it came to college. ![]() Software developer Bob Deen ’87 is a veteran at JPL, having worked at the research juggernaut since he graduated from Texas A&M University. The latter is a solar-powered helicopter comparable in size to a mass-market drone but with an $80 million price tag.Įvery day of their respective missions, these robotic travelers take pictures and beam them back to their home on Earth, where scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) process the images, gather meaningful data and deliver directions for the robots to traverse the Red Planet. The former is a six-wheeled rover with 19 cameras and a cache of rock and dirt samples for a future return mission. ![]() More than 242 million miles from College Station, Texas, two recently deployed explorers scour Mars’ unforgiving surface like a modern-day Lewis and Clark.
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