Nelson Badillo Pérez: A Young Puerto Rican Making History at NASA

🇵🇷 Representing Puerto Rico and the Latino Community in Space Research

Nelson Badillo Pérez is making history at NASA where he’s helping develop special robots and spacecraft to explore Venus' atmosphere. Badillo Pérez is a 22-year-old Puerto Rican who has made it to NASA to contribute new knowledge in uncovering the secrets of the universe through his talent in robot development.

Last year he became the first person from Puerto Rico to be accepted into NASA's Space Technology Graduate Research Fellowship.

He graduated with a degree in robotics from the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a full scholarship, thanks in part to his idea for a soft-bodied robot designed for rescue and recovery missions after natural disasters. This idea, inspired by the devastation of Hurricane María in 2017, has since evolved. He's been refining it for potential use in planetary exploration or medical procedures like endoscopies.

Currently, Badillo is pursuing a doctorate at Harvard while continuing his research at NASA.

In His Words: "It’s an honor to work directly with these engineers and contribute, knowing that I'm representing not just my small Puerto Rican town, but all Latinos," he told Noticias Telemundo.

Latino workers at NASA have played significant roles in recent years, contributing as flight directors and helping to develop key components of missions like Mars Perseverance and the Artemis project to return humans to the Moon.

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