However, this expedition has been in the works for far longer than Perseverance has been traveling through interplanetary space. First announced in 2012, the mission marks the culmination of nearly a decade’s work by hundreds of machinists, designers, rocket scientists and engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. But not just anyone can get hired there, working for the world’s premiere spacecraft production facility and building equipment that will grace the surfaces of neighboring planets. For Mohamed Abid, a Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer on the Mars 2020 mission, the path to working at the JPL began in Tunisia, where he grew up. “After high school, I did my master and undergrad in Europe,” he explained to Engadget. “Then I came here to the US for my PhD.” Getting good grades obviously helped elevate his chances of landing a position at the JPL, Abid asserted, but “having internships, participating in internships, was really paramount. It gave me what I needed to get where I am.”