Aung was born in the United States and moved to Myanmar when she was two and a half years old. Her mother was the first woman to earn a doctoral degree in mathematics in Myanmar. As a child she was happy but did not have much money. She became interested in space science whilst she was a student at a British high school. She moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue her education, and was the only member of her family who had permission to do so. Aung studied electronic engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, and earned her master's degree in 1990. Her master's dissertation considered communications and signal processing. During her master's program one of her professors mentioned JPL's work in deep space exploration.
Research and career
Aung joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1990, where she has worked in projects related to spaceflight and the NASA Deep Space Network. She started her career working in the Radio Frequency and Microwave Subsystems Section of the DSN, where she developed and tested algorithms for the Block V Receiver. She deployed the digital receiver at each of the world's three DSN complexes, before working on monopulse radar systems. The monopulse radar systems were used in combination with the 34 m antennas for the DSN. She worked on the 240-GHz radiometer for the Earth Orbiting System Microwave Limb Sounder. Her next project involved the StarLight two spacecraft interferometer, for which she designed the autonomous formation radio frequency flying sensor. She was selected as the project element manager of formation flying the Terrestrial Planet Finder's formation flying program. After funding for the Terrestrial Planet Finder was indefinitely delayed, the project was canceled in 2011. Aung was made group supervisor of the Guidance, navigation, and control sensors group. In this capacity she created sensor technologies for spaceflight missions. She became increasingly interested in autonomous space exploration and was made manager of the section in 2010. She is a member of the Psyche spacecraft project team. In 2013 she became Deputy Manager of the Autonomous Systems Division, and in 2015 lead for the Mars Helicopter. As the atmosphere of Mars is so thin, the Mars Helicopter blades encounter considerably less air, and therefore, must spin faster than they would do on Earth. The first flight tests of the Mars Helicopter took place within the JPLspace simulator in early 2019. The total cost of the helicopter is around $23 million and it weighs less than 1.8 kg. The helicopter is planned for launch in July 2020 as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission. It is expected to be deployed once the rover lands on the Jezero crater in February 2021.
Public engagement
Aung is an Expert for The Planetary Society and has written for Spaceflight. She was selected as one of the top 100 Women in the world by the BBC in 2019. Aung has installed a webcam in the cleanroom at JPL that allows the public to watch the development of the helicopter. Aung featured in the 2019 documentary Space Queens along with several other women who were inspired by Apollo 11. The footage was archival and mentioned her involvement in taking humanity to Mars with the Perseverance rover in 2020, working in particular on the project for the helicopter Ingenuity that could demonstrate powered flight in Mars' atmosphere.
