Margarita Marinova

Margarita Marinova is a Bulgarian aeronautical engineer.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2022-07-20|}}</ref> She is the Senior Mars and Vehicle Systems Development Engineer at SpaceX.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2023-01-12|}}</ref>

Early life and education

Margarita Marinova was born in BulgariaTemplate:When and can speak five languages: English, Bulgarian, Russian, German and French.<ref name=":0">Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref> When she was 10, she moved to Vienna for one year, before moving to Toronto.<ref name=":1">Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref> Her mother and father were computer engineers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was the founder and chair of the Toronto Chapter of the international Mars Society whilst at high school.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref><ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2023-01-12|}}</ref> She entered and wonTemplate:Clarify the NASA Space Settlement Design Content in 1997, 1998 and 1999.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref> By the age of 18, she had co-authored five science papers.<ref name=":0" /> She was determined to one day visit Mars, although she did not always receive encouragement from her adult advisors: "In high school, my guidance counsellor gave me a big speech about how I would never get into an American university".<ref name=":0" />

Marinova completed a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering at MIT in 2003, specializing in liquid rocket propulsion.<ref name=":2">Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref> As an undergraduate she worked with Chris McKay of NASA Ames Research Center on the warming effects of perfluorocarbons (PFCs), with the aim to trigger a greenhouse effect and eventually terraform Mars.<ref name=":3" /> In 2003 she moved to Germany, working for a year at Airbus Safran Launchers on the Calorimetric Nozzle Program, where she investigated heat transfer in an engine rocket nozzle.<ref name=":2" /> She completed an MSc in Planetary Science at Caltech in 2006 and a PhD "Inquiries into the consequences of planetary-scale impacts and the implications of carbonates in the hyper-arid core of the Sahara" in 2010, under the supervision of Oded Aharonson.<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> While at Caltech, she led a study published in Nature in 2008 that demonstrated that the dichotomy in the surface age and relative altitude between Mars's northern and southern hemispheres could have been caused by Mars being struck by a large impactor early in its history.<ref>{{#invoke:Citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=journal }}</ref>

Research

Falcon 9 first stage test firing (2)

Marinova began working with NASA in 2010, where she used Earth analogs (including the Arctic, Sahara Desert, Mount Kilimanjaro and the Dry Valleys of Antarctica) to understand Mars.<ref name=":4">Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref> Here she was one of seven team members who spent three austral summers in Antarctica, testing ice-penetrating drills for a future mission to Mars.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> NASA's IceBite, which drilled several meters into the ground ice to collect deep ice and search for signs of organics and life, was documented by Marinova for Astrobiology Magazine.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref> Next she joined the Pavilion Lake Research Project, studying at the distribution and morphology of microbialites in Pavilion Lake, Canada.<ref>{{#invoke:Citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=journal }}</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref name=":2" /> Her final project for NASA was on the Extreme Environments Mission Operations (NEEMO),<ref name=":4" /><ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref> which sends groups of astronauts, engineers and scientists to live in the Aquarius underwater laboratory, the world's only undersea research station, for up to three weeks at a time in preparation for future space exploration.<ref name=nasa20060321> Template:Citation core{{#if:|}}</ref>

In 2013 Marinova joined SpaceX as Vehicle Systems and Propulsion Engineer.<ref name=lat20150910>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> She was the Vehicle Lead for the research program on densified propellants for use in the first stage of Falcon 9.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref><ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}Template:Dead linkTemplate:Cbignore</ref> She became Senior Mars Development Engineer in 2017.<ref name=":1" /> She is Team Lead for a Caltech incubator for determining science questions, collaborations, and mission proposals for Mars subsurface access beyond Mars 2020.<ref>Template:Citation core{{#if:2018-01-14|}}</ref>