Touching down the Perseverance rover on Mars, working inside clean rooms to keep microbial contamination to a minimum, and navigating hundreds of engineering trade-offs with Swati Mohan, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. What exactly are the “seven minutes of terror”? And what do we know about possible evidence of ancient life on Mars? [buzzsprout episode=’18903199′ player=’true’] View the episode transcript About What It’s Like to Be…In each episode of What It’s Like to Be…, bestselling author Dan Heath talks with someone about what it’s like to spend a day in their (work) shoes. Behavioral Scientist is a distribution partner, with new episodes released every other week. Learn more about the podcast’s “slow curiosity” mission here, and go here to read Dan’s reflections on how that mission is unfolding after a year of conversations. The “Aerospace Engineer” episode of What It’s Like To Be… features Swati Mohan and was produced and edited by Matt Purdy. Copyright © 2026 by Dan Heath. All rights reserved. The post What It’s Like to Be…an Aerospace Engineer appeared first on Behavioral Scientist.