16.06.2022
This illustration shows a concept for a proposed NASA Sample Retrieval Lander that would carry a small rocket (about 10 feet, or 3 meters, tall) called the Mars Ascent Vehicle to the Martian surface.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Sixteen scientists from the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Japan have been chosen to help future samples from the Red Planet achieve their full potential.
NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), its partner in the Mars Sample Return Program, have established a new group of researchers to maximize the scientific potential of Mars rock and sediment samples that would be returned to Earth for in-depth analysis. Called the Mars Sample Return Campaign Science Group, the 16 researchers will function as a science resource for the campaign’s project teams as well as for related Earth-based ground projects, such as sample recovery and curation.
“These 16 individuals will be the standard-bearers for Mars Sample Return science,” said Michael Meyer, Mars Exploration Program lead scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “They will build the roadmap by which science for this historic endeavor is accomplished – including establishing the processes for sample-related decision-making and designing the procedures that will allow the worldwide scientific community to become involved with these first samples from another world.”
The members of the Mars Sample Return Campaign Science Group are:
- Laura Rodriguez – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Southern California
- Michael Thorpe – Johnson Space Center Engineering, Technology and Science at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston / Texas State University, San Marcos
- Audrey Bouvier – Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, Germany
- Andy Czaja – Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati
- Nicolas Dauphas – Origins Laboratory, the University of Chicago
- Katherine French – Central Energy Resources Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Denver
- Lydia Hallis – School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK
- Rachel Harris – Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Boston
- Ernst Hauber – Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center, Germany
- Suzanne Schwenzer – School of Earth, Environment and Ecosystem Sciences, the Open University, UK
- Andrew Steele – Earth and Planetary Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
- Kimberly Tait – Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, Canada
- Tomohiro Usui – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
- Jessica Vanhomwegen – Laboratory for Urgent Response to Biological Threats, Institut Pasteur, France
- Michael Veibel – Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Michigan State University
- Maria-Paz Zorzano Mier – Astrobiology Center, National Institute for Aerospace Technology, Spain