Dev Ayesa

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Dev Ayesa
Personal Information
Gender	Male
Family	Malaika Ayesa (mother)
Nationality	United States
Professional Information
Occupation	Entrepreneur CEO of Helios
Affiliation	Helios Aerospace
Series Information
Actor	Edi Gathegi
Seasons	Three, Four, Five
Episodes	17
First seen	Bonus video: 1987 3x01
Last seen

The lesson of Icarus is not "Don't fly to close to the sun", it's make better f*cking wings. The best way to seize the future, is to invent it.

Dev Ayesa, in season 4, episode 3, "The Bear Hug"

Dev Ayesa is an American engineer and entrepreneur and was the co-founder of Helios Aerospace, together with his partner Richard Hilliard. In 1995, he was removed from his position as CEO of the company and later founded a new robotics company. In 2003, he took back his old company and fired then CEO and former partner Hilliard.

History

Background

Dev's father was a Kenyan immigrant who became an aerospace engineer in the US. He later worked for Kirkland Aerospace in Illinois, building components for the Saturn V rocket. After Apollo 23 exploded on the launch pad in August 1974, the whole Saturn V team was replaced and his father lost his job and couldn't find another one to save his life. He never really recovered from that and passed away before Dev graduated college.

Season 3

Helios Aerospace

Around 1986, Dev and his partner Richard Hilliard developed the first working nuclear fusion reactor^W. They eventually founded Helios Aerospace, which won a NASA contract for the mining of Helium-3 on the Moon in April 1987.

Mars Mission

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After the disasterous incident on the orbital hotel Polaris, Dev seized the opportunity to purchase the space station to repurpose it into Phoenix, Helios' spacecraft for its planned mission to Mars. Later, Dev was approached by Karen Baldwin to recruit her former husband Ed Baldwin as the commander of that mission, after Ed was passed on the Sojourner mission by NASA. After a collective agreement, Dev announced to the world on Helios' plan to begin their mission two full years before the scheduled NASA and Roscosmos missions.

Season 4

In 2000, 5 years after being ousted from his own company, Dev founded a new robotics company. Following this, Kelly Baldwin would use his robotics during tests at NASA on a project to find life on Mars.

Return to Helios

After NASA wouldn't fund further projects for Kelly after the asteroid disaster, Dev was reached out to by her and Aleida Rosales to help fund their project called S.E.E.K.E.R.. Dev declined, as though the results are promising, there wasn't any return on investment for him. Kelly called him out, as Dev used to be passionate about exploration, and instead now thinking of himself. But Dev told Kelly that Karen helped him see who people really are.

However, Dev contemplated on the pitch and ultimately decided to work with the two. He pitched to the two on collecting shares from loyal ex-employees to gain majority stake in Helios. After getting the shares signed over, Dev, along with Kelly and Aleida, stormed a Helios board meeting and announced he was the new CEO. He then fired every person who ever opposed his Mars ambitions, including Richard Hilliard and many key board members.

After the Vasily Galkin accident, Dev was interviewed by an NNC anchor if the incident would impact Helios' financial position. Dev stated that because they were a multi-national organization, they didn't have a dog in the fight. Dev then closed, standing firm on his original vision to build a thriving colony on Mars, one that anyone can make the journey for.

Leaving for Mars

After the Goldilocks asteroid was discovered, Dev made the spontaenous announcement he would be leaving for Mars. When confronted about it by Kelly and Aleida, Dev told Aleida she would be left in charge with the negotiations with the Mars-7 Alliance, as well as proposed Kelly to follow him to lead the search of microbial life, though Kelly had reservations due to having to leave her son behind.

Dev later visited his mother Malaika to share his announcement, and that he didn't plan on returning home. When his mother implored him to reconsider, Dev blamed her for ruining his father's ambitions and they should only part as friends. Later, Kelly told Dev she would go with him if she could bring Alex along, believing Alex's health conditions could actually improve on Mars. While mulling over his last conversation with his mother, Dev agreed, telling Kelly that Alex would be welcome.

Arrival on Mars

Dev arrives on Mars with Kelly and Alex, during the journey to the surface, Dev reassures Alex that the turbulence they are feeling is normal, and points out the canyon that will be their new home. Dev is welcomed to Mars by Helios Chief and base XO Palmer James who apologises for the current strike among the Helios workers and offers to show him around the base, before being cut off by Danielle Poole who says that she has to speak with him. Dani asks Dev in his quarters about his plans for the strike, Dev says that he is still making his decision. Dani tries to pressure him, but he thanks her for showing him to his room. She reminds him that as CO of the base, what she says goes, before leaving.

The strike continues, with an accident in the cryo plant killing one worker and injuring four others, after they had tried to bypass a regulator that the striking workers had removed. During an impromptu meeting of the striking workers, Dev enters and creates a line on the ground out of sugar and informs them that he is impressed by their negotiations and their resolve, but the nations of Earth will not allow the Goldilocks asteroid to be mined in Mar's orbit, and that they need to get back to work. He offers them a deal that will ensure their safety, as well as offering the first 100 workers to cross the line over $1 million. One by one Helios workers begin to cross it, as Ed and Samantha Massey try to tell them to stop. By the end only 5 workers including Ed and Samantha remain, the rest having taken the deal. Ed tells Dev that he has killed Mars.

Asteroid theft

Dev later visit's Ed's quarters. Ed responds angrily to his visit, before Dev says that he was not surprised that the workers had acted with greed, and that he needed to test Ed's resolve. Dev talks about their shared ambition for a Martian colony, before asking Ed if he wants to steal an asteroid. The two round up the remaining hold outs, where Dev details the plan. By ensuring Ranger burns for 25 minutes instead of 20, Goldilocks will be trapped in Martian orbit. Instead of simply utilizing a gravity assist^W on it's way to Earth. To facilitate this they need to build their own Ops-Comm and have Samantha swap out a discriminator box on Ranger so they can remotely control it. The group manage to build their own Ghost Ops by stealing the equipment necessary, utilizing Miles Dale to smuggle it. The discriminator box is obtained when Alex Poletov crawls through vent ducts that would be too small for the adult members of the team.

Kelly manages to discover vast methane deposits in her search for microbial life at Korolev crater, although Dev is distracted during her post mission review. Being more interested in playing with Alex.

The plot hits a snag when Samantha is unable to switch out the discriminator box after a month onboard Ranger. In order to have a greater view of the situation, Miles and Ed enlist Lee Jung-Gil to place a relay on the secret North Korean feed of the base. This allows the team to discover that Samantha has been successful, giving control of Ranger. Unfortunately the relay is discovered by North Korean Commander Cho Byung Ho. During Cho's complaints to Danielle, he mentions Miles name. This leads to him being investigated by KGB and CIA assets on the base, as well as Cho himself. Miles then forcefully interrogated, while Cho discovers the location of Ghost Ops, but is choked unconscious by Lee once he does.

Miles is ultimately forced into revealing the location of Ghost Ops when the CIA threaten to arrest his wife and place his children with CPS. Dev Ayesa is able to send a Mayday to Ghost Ops prior to a raid by base security. By the time base security reaches sub level 4, they find deserted equipment and active monitors. Danielle Poole comes to the astonishing realization that the subversive group had set up their own Ghost Ops and were pursuing intentions to interfere with Ranger and the Goldilocks operation. Ed Baldwin, Dev Ayesa and their group take refuge in the North Korean compound. Without equipment they are unable to engage with the discriminator on Ranger. Danielle Poole and base security begin to suspect the group may be hiding in the North Korean area. She places a call to them and speaks with Ed. They have irreconcilable differences and Ed cuts the call. Ed Baldwin notices the North Koreans have secure, encrypted communication capability with their Officer on Ranger. Using this equipment and the assistance of the North Korean officer aboard Ranger, Dev is able to reestablish contact with Massey and provide a new plan to overtake Ranger. Massey is directed to perform an EVA to access a control panel that will give the team control of Rangers engine burn. An alarm alerts Ranger that an exterior hatch is open. The Ranger crew use their camera feed to determine it is Massey outside of Ranger. Soon they realize what she is aiming for. Danielle Poole directs Palmer to suit up and put a stop to Masseys interference. Upon his EVA, Palmer and Massey struggle for control of Rangers engine panel. Massey is successful in fighting off Palmer. The continued engine burn of Ranger, past the cutoff time, tips the Goldilocks asteroid toward permanent orbit of Mars. Helios is victorious. At Happy Valley and back on Earth, the M-7 countries are stunned into silence. In the final scenes of the last episode, Dev Ayesa is seen on the surface of Mars , high on the rim of the Koralev Crater. He stands alone in his suit. He gazes to the Martian night sky and observes a luminous object in orbit. It is Goldilocks. The surface of the asteroid shows mining operations and a huge space center dubbed Kuznetsov Station.

Gallery

See also: Image gallery of Dev Ayesa

Ayesa & Hilliard fusion pioneers

Dev Ayesa in the news

Dev Ayesa on the Time magazine

Dev talking to Karen about Polaris

Helios' Mars Mission announcement

Dev Ayesa & Ed Baldwin

Dev Ayesa at the IAC 1992 in London

Dev Ayesa at JSC

New company in 2000

Dev's house in 2003

Dev in the news, 2003

Behind the scenes

• The character of Dev Ayesa is loosely based on several real life personalities, like Elon Musk^W, Steve Jobs^W, and Jeff Bezos^W, with Helios Aerospace mirroring a mixture of SpaceX^W, Google^W, and other tech companies.

See also

• Helios Aerospace
• Richard Hilliard
• Malaika Ayesa