People

Noah Rothenberger is a Robotics Systems Engineer in the Robot Ops and V&V group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). She received her B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Robotics and Computer Vision from ETH Zurich. At JPL, Noah is a member of the Mars 2020 Robotic Operations team. She serves as a Sampling and Caching Operator for the Perseverance rover, supporting both tactical and strategic operations to command the rover in collecting and storing a carefully curated set of rock and soil samples. She is also the Subject Matter Expert (SME) for the rover’s Gas Dust Removal Tool (gDRT) and a technical authority for the rover’s Corer subsystem.

In addition to rover operations, Noah previously served as an operator for the Mars Ingenuity Helicopter, planning and sequencing the helicopter’s activities and assessing post-activity data to ensure vehicle health and mission success on Mars.

Outside of robotic operations, Noah conducts research in computer vision, perception, and mapping. She has contributed to the development of advanced image analysis and mapping algorithms. Her recent work supports lunar surface mapping, aiming to improve terrain understanding and enable safer, more accurate mission planning for future lunar expeditions.