These Whatcom scientists are working on NASA’s new Mars rover mission

When viewers on Earth see images from NASA’s Perseverance rover after it lands on Mars Thursday, Feb. 18, they’ll be looking at the Red Planet partly through the eyes of a Western Washington University researcher and her team of students and alums.

Melissa Rice, an associate professor of planetary science in WWU’s geology and physics and astronomy departments, has been working with NASA and its Mars rover programs for several years. Rice earned her doctorate in astronomy at Cornell University in 2012 and was a NASA Astrobiology Institute Postdoctoral fellow at Caltech from 2012-2014.