"Bob" Balaram (born 28 June 1959) is an Indian-American scientist and engineer currently working for National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

[7][8][9] After schooling at Rishi Valley School, Balaram completed his Bachelor of Technology course from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India in 1980, and further went to receive his MS and Ph.D. in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York.

[2] He has been working at Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the past 20 years in Mobility & Robotic Systems Department.

[7][14][15] In 2012 MiMi Aung was leading then JPL director Charles Elachi on a tour of the Autonomous Systems Division.

By January 2015 NASA agreed to fund the development of a full-size model, which came to be known as the “risk reduction” vehicle.