Darian Dixon is among the solar system’s few interplanetary photographers, having operated a NASA rover because it imaged the panorama of Mars. However regardless of dreaming of a profession in space science as an adolescent, Dixon first went to highschool for political science, satisfied his math abilities weren’t as much as snuff. He credit the 2011 launch of NASA’s Curiosity rover for altering his thoughts on his main.
“I bear in mind watching each second of the launch protection,” Dixon says. “Seeing all these scientists overjoyed with the outcomes of their labor and prepared for the exploration forward, I made a decision I couldn’t draw back from that dream any longer.”
In 2018, he realized that dream when he joined Malin Area Science Techniques, the California firm tasked with constructing NASA’s Mars cameras, as a data-management lead. There, he operated three cameras on Curiosity, in addition to helped develop the Perseverance rover’s Mastcam-Z digital camera.
When footage from Perseverance started rolling in after its touchdown in February 2021, Dixon stated the sensation was “nothing in need of unbelievable. So many engineers, scientists, managers, visionaries, labored tirelessly for years. It was an enormous ‘That is it. We’ve accomplished it’ second.”
