As the senior robotics engineer responsible for the rovers' mobility and robotic arms, Tunstel designed the software that allowed Spirit and Opportunity to roam about on Mars, using robotic arms to collect data and take photos that were sent back to Earth. He is expected to tell more of his story tonight at the Franklin Institute, where he is one of four African-American scientists on a panel for a program called "The Color of Science."
The program is a project of the ScienceMakers, an initiative of the HistoryMakers, a Chicago-based nonprofit that says it has the nation's largest archive of African-American video oral history. That archive is now online.
Julieanna Richardson, founder of HistoryMakers, said she launched ScienceMakers to spotlight accomplishments of today's African-American scientists.
In 2009, the ScienceMakers received a $2.3 million National Science Foundation grant to continue its video project and to begin a "public program" to bring renowned scientists to 10 science museums around the country.
"So little is known about the lives and careers of black scientists and their contributions that we want these science centers to be a hub for the science community and to spread the word," Richardson said this week.
She said that through this program, young people will see that some of the scientists visiting the museums grew up in rather tough neighborhoods.
"These kids can see themselves in the lives of the scientists and see that there's a world of possibilities out there," she said.
Tunstel, 47, worked at the Jet Propulsion Lab for 18 years before returning East in 2007 for a position at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md.
