Probe the current spate of news on planetary exploration a little deeper and it emerges that scientists of Indian origin have been entrusted with key roles. That’s true on both sides of the Atlantic. As the lead engineer for the current Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Prasun N. Desai was one of three engineers from NASA who joined the large team overseeing the mission from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena during the Mars landing on January 3, 2004