Latino+Essay+CN

=Resources=
 * Scholastic - Latinos in History
 * FactMonster.com
 * [|Wikipedia]

= Dr. Juan R. Cruz =
 * Born: January 5, 1946
 * Is a Puerto Rican aerospace engineer
 * Played an istumental role in the design and development of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) parachute.
 * He earned a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 * He earned a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in aerospace engineering.
 * He was a senior aerospace engineer in the Exploration Systems Engineering Branch at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
 * His responsibilities are focused on the research and development of entry, descent, and landing (EDL) systems for both robotic and human exploration missions.
 * He was a member of the highly successful Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project.

=__Spanish Essay__=

There are many people of Hispanic heritage who have made great contributions to science. In fact many Puerto Ricans have been involved with the successes of NASA since its beginning and now even have key positions in the space exploration organization. Dr. Juan R. Cruz is one of those who have contributed to NASA’s success. Dr. Juan R. Cruz was born on January 5, 1946. He was born, raised, and completed high school in Puerto Rico (“Parachuting Onto Mars”). When he was young he became fascinated by aeronautics and decided to pursue a career in it (“Parachuting Onto Mars”).

He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“Juan R. Cruz”). During the time he spent at MIT he was involved with the Monarchand Daedalus human powered aircraft teams (“Juan R. Cruz”). After he left MIT, he went on to briefly work at Beech Aircraft Corporation in Wichita, Kansas and then went on to earn a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech as well (“Juan R. Cruz”).

In 1988 Cruz started to work at NASA (“Parachuting Onto Mars”); although now he is currently a senior aerospace engineer in the Exploration Systems Engineering Branch at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia (“Juan R. Cruz”). The responsibilities that he has over there are mainly focused on both the research and development of entry, descent, and landing systems (also known as EDL) for both robotic and human exploration missions (“Juan R. Cruz”). During the last 13 years, he has actually been a part of teams that have landed the Mars Science laboratory (MSL), the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity, and the Phoenix on Mars (“Parachuting Onto Mars”).

While working on the Mars Science laboratory (MSL) known as Curiosity in 2012, Cruz supervised the creation of parachute mathematical problems for the largest parachute ever to be flown to Mars (“All Systems Go”). This was needed as Curiosity was the largest rover ever sent to Mars. During an interview with Denise Lineberry, he said "If you put the capsule at the 50-yard line of a football field, the top of the parachute would end up in the end zone." (“All Systems Go”). Cruz studied altitude versus time and altitude versus distance, of varied parachute models to determine the design of the parachute (“All Systems Go”). This was a difficult process as said by Cruz here: "There are challenges to testing these parachutes because we cannot test it at exactly the right conditions. Earth's atmosphere is the one we have to work with and the Martian atmosphere is very different, so you have to make adjustments in how you test the parachute. Another issue is the wind tunnel models we used in our tests were ten-percent scale models, about five feet in diameter" ("Langly Engineers Help”). They designed the parachute so that about 255 seconds after entry, it would then deploy at about seven miles high and moving at a velocity of around 900 miles per hour (“All Systems Go”).

Cruz also played an instrumental role in the design and development of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) parachute as he was one of the members of the project (“Juan R. Cruz”). This project along with the Mars Science Laboratory was highly successful, and as I mentioned before his contributions to these projects were mainly focused on the design and qualification of the parachutes used for landing (“Juan R. Cruz”). The MER-A, known as Spirit, was launched on June 10, 2003 and on January 4, 2004 Spirit landed in Gusev crater (“Juan R. Cruz”). The MER-B, known as Opportunity, was launched on July 7, 2003 and on January 25, 2004 Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum, located on the opposite side of Mars from Spirit. (“Juan R. Cruz”)

Cruz was also a member of the team that worked on the Phoenix (Mars 2007) as well. So as it is hopefully easy to see, there are many times when Dr. Juan R. Cruz has helped to make a difference in the worlds of both Science and Technology (“Parachuting Onto Mars”).

=Bibliography=

"Parachuting Onto Mars: Subject Matter Experts-Juan R. Cruz." NASA. NASA, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014.

[|http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/summer/NASASTEMchallenges/student-connections/#.U17KUFVdWGM]
 * I know that this is credible because it is a government cite.

"Juan R. Cruz." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Apr. 2014. Web. 01 May 2014.

[]
 * I know that this site is credible because it use information from credible cites such as NASA itself.

Dunbar, Brian. "Langley Is 'All Systems Go' to Make History on Mars." NASA. NASA, 17 July 2012. Web. 01 May 2014.

[]
 * I know that this is credible because it is a government cite.

Dunbar, Brian. "Langly Engineers Help Latest Missions Land on Mars." NASA. NASA, 24 Nov. 2004. Web. 01 May 2014.

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 * I know that this is credible because it is a government cite.