Dr. Lisa Pratt, an EAS Professor Emeritus and NASA Planetary Protection Officer, is working on the Mars Sample Return mission, scheduled to launch on July 22nd. Quoting a Wall Street Journal article, " NASA’s ‘planetary protection officer’ works to keep alien microbes and viruses away from Earth—and to avoid contaminating distant planets and moons."
Mat Kaplan, host of the nationally syndicated Planetary Radio, interviewed Lisa in 2019 for H2M about the MSR mission, and about her work with NASA.
The College of Arts