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About

Kyle Kaplan is a key figure in the robotic exploration of Mars, specializing in the development, planning, and execution of complex robotic operations for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. His work centers on the Perseverance rover’s mobility, manipulation, and sampling systems, as well as the Ingenuity helicopter’s flights, enabling groundbreaking surface science and sample collection. Kaplan’s major contributions include overseeing the rover’s first extended mission, where it drove over 30 km and filled 24 of its 43 sample tubes, and orchestrating the historic Three Forks Sample Depot—the first depot of sealed Martian samples deposited on the planet’s surface. His publications, such as “Results from the First Year and a Half of Mars 2020 Robotic Operations” (13 citations) and “Robotic Operations During Perseverance’s First Extended Mission” (5 citations), document these achievements and inform future planetary robotics. Kaplan’s work is pivotal to the Mars Sample Return campaign, demonstrating the feasibility of autonomous robotic operations in extreme environments. His expertise in real-time command sequencing and hazard avoidance has directly advanced humanity’s ability to explore and collect samples from other worlds, inspiring the next generation of space roboticists.