Diana Trujillo – “A Tale of Perseverance” – The inspiring story of how reaching for the stars took this Columbia native to Mars.
Born in Columbia in 1980, Diana Trujillo was not only raised in a culture where women are still limited to mostly traditional roles, but during her childhood, Colombia was racked with the “Narcos” drug violence of the 1980s. She was raised by a single mom, with scarce resources, in a chaotic, dangerous country, where making it home safely each night wasn’t taken for granted.
Diana showed an early interest in science and art, with an aptitude for math, and fortunately, she was bold enough to question the confining roles delegated to women. When she needed an escape from the world around her, she would gaze at the stars from her backyard. The vast dark sky became her safe place – her refuge of peace in the midst of tumult. Diana eventually followed the calling of the stars, taking a daring risk and moving to the U.S. when she was only 17 years old, with just $300.
She wasn’t fluent in English, so she took on housekeeping and other side jobs, while learning English at Miami Dade Community College. There she stood in a slow-moving line, not knowing which major to choose. While she was surrounded by those who did not look quite like her, Kalpana Chawla remained an inspiration to her throughout. Kalpana was a female who arrived in the U.S. from India, and yet, against the odds, became an astronaut. Sadly, she was one of the astronauts who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion in 2003.
The final push Diana needed came when she spotted a magazine outside the dean’s office featuring all women on the cover.. She hadn’t even heard of aerospace engineering before, but regardless, she made the bold decision to choose it for her major. Later she transferred to the University of Florida to continue her new path. While there, one of her professors recommended she apply to NASA Academy. Diana Trujillo became the first immigrant Hispanic woman to be admitted to the prestigious program.
Trujillo’s courageous moves in a white male-dominated tech world continued to pay off. At NASA Academy, she was encouraged to move to Maryland by Brian Roberts, NASA’s robotics expert. She took his advice and enrolled in the University of Maryland, going on to work with Professor Roberts on space robotics research at the university.
Diana Trujillo earned her Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2007 and was offered a job with NASA. She began working at the Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington D.C., becoming part of the Jet Propulsion Lab on human and robotic space missions.
At NASA, Trujillo has tackled various facets and parts of the Curiosity Mars Rover, from an intricate dust-removal tool, which took six months to develop, to communications between the rover and scientists on Earth. Curiosity was sent to Mars in 2011 on a two-year mission and is still operational as of 2021. Trujillo has been promoted to Lead position on several teams, up to Mission Lead in 2014, the same year she was listed as one of the 20 most influential Hispanics in the Tech Industry.
Trujillo worked as Flight Director on the 2020 Mars Perseverance robotic arm. In February of 2021, she hosted the first-ever Mars Rover Spanish landing show: “Together We Persevere.” Trujillo offered live English-to-Spanish translation and commentary as the rover navigated its tricky descent and landing on Mars.
Diana Trujillo’s biography was written into a children’s STEM book series featuring science engineers: Mars Science Lab – Engineer: Diana Trujillo by Kari Cornell and Fatima Khan. Now it’s her face on the cover of a book, inspiring young girls of color to take their own courageous steps toward their goals.
From staring into space amidst great obstacles as a child, to actively searching for signs of life on Mars with NASA today, Diana Trujillo at JPL continues to defy the odds and boldly go where no one has gone before.
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