Letters to the Editor: If NASA’s JPL mission is shelved, we’ll lose invaluable scientific information

To the editor: As a member of the Mars Sample Return team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I think your readers would benefit from the following additional information (“JPL’s rough ride: Can California’s shining star of space science recover?,” Oct. 19).

First, the purpose of that mission is to bring back rock and regolith samples from Mars. Second, these samples are currently being collected by the Perseverance rover, which has been operating on Mars for more than four years and is still going strong.

Third, as announced by NASA and described in a paper published in the journal Nature on Sept. 10, at least one of the samples collected so far by Perseverance has shown a potential biosignature — that is, a substance or structure that might have a biologic origin, meaning it might have been produced by ancient life. And lastly, if that sample were returned to Earth, then scientific analysis would likely be able to determine whether it does indeed indicate prior life on Mars.

If, on the other hand, we do not bring back this sample because the mission has been shelved, then we will probably never know what precious secrets it holds. That would be a huge missed opportunity and a shame for us all.

David Cummings, Santa Barbara