While many scientists keep exploring Earth and its wonders, Matthew Brand aims to shoot for space, more particularly for Mars. A Stevens’ 2021 alumni, Brand was first inspired by the Curiosity car-sized rover launched on Mars a few years back and found his niche later at Stevens as he combined his computer science degree and his interest in space when he joined Professor Paul Grogan’s research team. Fast forward a few years, his work and passion led him to a spot aboard NASA’s Perseverance and Curiosity Martian rovers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico.
A Pinnacle scholar, leader of the Attila Entrepreneurs student organization, and avidly passionate about Hoboken and New York photography, Brand was active on campus but when COVID hit, Grogan’s recent work drew his attention the most among the ones found on the Stevens’ list of researches. Grogran’s study involved building a ‘testbed’ system for NASA which was focused on helping the agency coordinate satellites and other ground systems with each other while improving information flow and operation management.
Brand further explains; “Dr. Grogan is building a system to experiment with new operational concepts, specifically to test and improve their communications with each other. Let’s say a satellite flies over a hurricane. What if it could automatically signal the next passing satellite to get a closer look at the most interesting parts of the storm? Right now that’s not done automatically, only manually.”
Working with Grogan, Brand wrote simulation code of operations of multiple satellites, as well as simulated messages flowing within an observing system, all in languages that are not currently standardized.
“He quickly picked up the communication protocol (MQTT) used on the project, and tapped into a deep interest in space systems to understand the fundamentals of Earth observation satellites,” says Grogan of his former student. “His contributions to the NOS-T (New Observing Strategies TestBed) test plan built on systems- and software-engineering best practices to help verify that the proposed information system meets requirements.”
Brand mentioned how his project at Stevens with Professor Grogan was a helpful experience when he decided to apply to Los Alamos.
At LANL, Brand’s daily work as an engineering operator involves the supervision of the ChemCam and SuperCam on the Curiosity and Perseverance Rovers, whose lasers, cameras, and spectrographs work together to identify the chemical and mineral composition of rocks and soils. Each instrument has the ability to shoot rocks on the surface of Mars with a laser from several meters away to reveal the chemical composition of the gaseous plasma created at collision.
This technique has revealed subsurface salt deposits, which may indicate previous bodies of water. The newer SuperCam incorporated several upgrades, including the capability to take color images and a microphone that recorded the first audio ever captured from the Red Planet.
“Each day, we plan what the rovers will do,” Brand explains. “It’s almost a mission-control scenario. We all meet daily to assess and coordinate the rover subsystems: power, telecom, mobility, all the instruments. We take each day’s scientific objectives —‘shoot this rock with this laser,’ essentially — and turn that into plans, then create computer code that is sent up to the rover at the end of each day.
“We also check daily to make sure each rovers’ activities are safe for that rover, and that the instruments remain healthy. My days are very dynamic.”
Reflecting upon his years at Stevens, Brand truly believes the content learned during his time here was helpful in excelling outside of the Institute. Now that he is actively working on key features of two rovers providing more than just images from the red planet, Brand feels like his work is truly paying off as he helps share the landscapes of Mars that no one has ever seen before. “It makes a hard day really worth it.”
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