The rover has lithium ion batteries to power it, and those are all charged by our nuclear power generator.”
MIGHTY M GENERATOR GENERATOR
“It’s the generator that fuels the rover. “Specifically on Perseverance, it’s a multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator,” says Gates. For the past five years, she’s been part of the group responsible for assembling, testing and delivering the rover generator. “What really got me in the door at INL was having machining experience, because a lot of engineers don't have that opportunity within their undergraduate education,” she says.įor Gates, it’s clear “the stars aligned,” but little did she know that the internship would eventually lead her to post-graduate employment and the surface of Mars.Īfter graduating from USD in 2016, Gates joined the INL team. It was that chance encounter with a stranger that prompted Gates to apply for an internship with the laboratory, a position she ultimately received due to her machining education. I said, ‘I’m applying for all these internships.’ He asked me what my major was and I said ‘mechanical engineering.’ His dad used to work at INL and he told me they have a lot of internship opportunities, so I said, ‘OK, I’ll look into it.’” “One day, a guy came in and asked what I was doing.
It was there that a random conversation opened up an unexpected opportunity. In the winter of 2015, Gates began working in Colorado during Intersession so she could pursue another passion - skiing. “Knowing how the process works - since I’ve done it first-hand - helps me design something that is practical.”Īn excitement for the unknown and a desire to learn continued to define Gates’ focus as she contemplated the next phase of her life. “Just having hands-on experience on how things are machined really makes us better engineers,” says Gates. A nuclear research engineer with the United States Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Gates has literally seen her career soar.Īs the world watched the launch and landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars in the summer of 2020, Gates held her breath as the rover generator she helped build touched down on the planet.Ī native of North Bend, Washington, Gates’ quest for warmer weather and beaches led her to San Diego for college, where she immediately discovered a home away from home at the University of San Diego’s Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering.Īs a work-study undergraduate student for the engineering school, Gates quickly immersed herself in the program, taking advantage of the access to professors, the small class sizes and the ability to pursue hands-on learning opportunities in the school’s machine shop. From sunny San Diego to the windswept Martian landscape, Amanda Gates ’16 (BS/BA) is charting her own path.
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