The Man From Mars
Written by Brendan Pollecutt, Photos by J.R. Hebert
Back in the 80’s, somewhere in a New Jersey basement, Torsten Zorn stood alongside his father, Tilman, building remote-control cars and airplanes late into the night. Now, some thirty years later, he has built the ultimate remote-control car, and is about to send it to another planet. Perseverance Rover will land at the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. The rover will join its gutsy older brother, Curiosity, and extend the search for “evidence of ancient habitability.” As lead flight systems engineer, Zorn has played a key role and will continue to do so once it touches down. “I helped design, develop, and test what is called the Sample Catching Subsystem,” he tells me. “It’s the newest and most risky part of the rover, from a robotic standpoint.” Its primary purpose is to obtain and store Martian rock cores for retrieval by a follow-on mission.
[Editor's note: we are excited to announce our next Petersen Museum exhibit - ADV:Overland, Off-Road to Off-World - is all systems GO and opening July 2021. Torsten Zorn is one of the many amazing partners and supporters of this exhibit: exactly how Torsten is supporting ADV:Overland will be revealed soon!]