Aerospace Engineering

Aerospace engineering is the discipline most directly associated with reaching Mars. It encompasses the design, construction, and testing of the spacecraft, launch vehicles, landers, and entry systems that carry both robots and, eventually, humans across the roughly 225-million-kilometer gulf between Earth and the Red Planet. Every mission that has reached Mars — and every crewed mission being planned — rests on the work of aerospace engineers.

The Mars challenge pushes the field to its limits. Landing on Mars is notoriously difficult: the atmosphere is thin enough to complicate parachute braking yet thick enough to generate dangerous heat during entry, forcing engineers to combine heat shields, supersonic parachutes, and powered descent in the harrowing sequence often called the "seven minutes of terror." Propulsion specialists work on the engines and fuel systems — including the possibility of manufacturing return propellant from the Martian atmosphere — while structures and materials engineers design vehicles that survive launch, deep space, and landing.

Programs in aerospace engineering typically cover aerodynamics, propulsion, orbital mechanics, materials, and control systems, providing the foundation for careers across the space industry. Graduates go on to design the very systems explored across this site, from the robotic missions already at Mars to the human missions still on the drawing board.