Steve Collins (engineer)

Steve Collins is an American physicist and engineer best known for his role in NASA Mars exploration program.

Education and early-life

Collins earned degrees in physics and theater arts from the University of California Santa Cruz^[1] He is the son of Emmy winning cinematographer Bob Collins best known for his work on Superman and Miami Vice.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Collins worked in the motion picture industry for a few years after graduation before being hired by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has worked on the Psyche,^[2] Deep Impact^[3] and Deep Space One missions on attitude, guidance and control. He worked as team lead on the Mars Exploration Program.^[4] Collins served as senior guidance and control engineer on the Mars Science Laboratory mission.^[5] Collins long hair along with Bobak Ferdowsi's mohawk, also drew attention as a new face of NASA.^[5]

Outside of NASA, Collins acts in community theater including a part in a musical Star Trek parody presented by the Caltech theater arts department.^[6] He also plays for JPL's employee soccer team, The Cosmics, and races autocross.^[1]