Department of Earth, Environmental & Planetary Sciences

NASA has announced a new strategy review team, including DEEPS Professor Jack Mustard, to assess potential architecture adjustments for the agency’s Mars Sample Return Program. The program aims to bring back scientifically selected samples from Mars, and is a key step in NASA’s quest to better understand our solar system and help answer whether we are alone in the universe.

Professor Jack Mustard spoke with Scientific American about the Mars Sample Return program and NASA's recent update. “There are aspects of solar system evolution that can only be done through the return of samples [from Mars]."

DEEPS Professor John Mustard recently shared his opinion with Nature about NASA's new considerations for the Perseverance rover's mission, saying the rocks currently on board are “great, but they’re not sufficient to be the transformative samples that we want them to be.”

Responding to a listener question, the Possibly Team spoke with Professor Jack Mustard about whether or not the garbage Americans throw into landfills could be fired into the sun.