Rob Manning, one of NASA JPL’s most accomplished and respected engineers, will deliver the Friday evening keynote at the 28th Annual International Mars Society Convention, taking place October 9-11, 2025, at USC in Los Angeles. His address is scheduled for the evening of Friday, October 10th.
With a career spanning more than three decades at JPL, Rob has helped shape nearly every phase of modern Mars exploration. He served as Chief Engineer for Mars Pathfinder, where he led the Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) team for the first-ever airbag lander and rover on another planet. He went on to co-create and help lead the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) and later played a key role in developing the now-famous sky crane landing technique used to deliver the Curiosity rover to the Martian surface in 2012.
As Chief Engineer for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Rob oversaw the design and testing of one of NASA’s most complex planetary missions to date. He is currently Mars Program Engineering Manager at JPL and leads the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project, which is testing new technologies for future Mars landers.
Rob is also the author of Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity’s Chief Engineer, and has received numerous accolades for his work, including four NASA medals, two honorary doctorates, and induction into the Aviation Week Space Laureate Hall of Fame at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. A graduate of Caltech and Whitman College, Rob lives in La Cañada, CA with his wife Dominique and daughter Caline.
During the banquet, Rob will share reflections on his engineering journey, the evolution of Mars missions, and the technological challenges and opportunities ahead for robotic and human exploration.
To register for the 2025 international convention, purchase banquet tickets, or sign up as a volunteer, visit marssociety.org.
Don’t miss the chance to hear from one of the key minds behind Mars exploration!
