With a meticulously charted flowchart, Swati Mohanwas prepared for everything that could go wrong on February 18. It was only when Perseverance, the rover sent to look for signs of ancient life on Mars, touched down that she took her eyes off the screen. 'It was a big relief.' The guidance navigation & control lead for Mars 2020 at NASA talks to TOI's Chandrima Banerjee about the eight years of her work 'from paper to Mars', how diversity helps innovation and what’s next for the mission Was it a lot of pressure? Mars and Earth are only in this special configuration roughly every two years. So, if you miss this launch window, you have to wait two years before the next one. So yeah, there is a big pressure.