Ancient Mars was warm. It had rivers, lakes, and oceans. It had an atmosphere and a magnetic field to protect its surface from radiation. It contained the same elements that initiated and supported early life here on the Earth. And for decades, the science community has looked at Mars and asked one of the most fundamental questions we can pose as a species: did life arise somewhere other than the Earth?
The Perseverance Mars rover may already hold the answer. Since landing at Jezero in February of 2021, it has collected 30 precious samples from this ancient crater lake. The samples include material characterized by its scientist as potential biosignatures. 
Matt Wallace has worked in the Mars program for nearly three decades. He’s been part of the teams that designed and built the evermore sophisticated fleet of rovers that have landed around the planet. As the mission complexity and capabilities grew, new innovative landing techniques were required from airbag systems to the JPL ‘Skycrane’ design capable of delivering a metric ton vehicle. Every landing must survive the ‘Seven Minutes of Terror’ as the spacecraft guides itself through supersonic atmospheric entry and precision terminal descent activities.
Mars continues to hold a fascination for explorers, as NASA and industry partners work to return the Perseverance samples, and look more seriously than ever before at human exploration of the Red Planet.
Matt Wallace is the Director for Planetary Sciences at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He oversees formulation, development, and operations of NASA missions to the Outer Planets, Mars, Venus, asteroids, and the Moon. Prior to becoming Director, Wallace worked on all five NASA Mars rover missions, beginning with Sojourner which landed in 1997, through the 2020 Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter mission that is currently collecting samples in Jezero crater. NASA and JPL are working to return these samples to Earth in the 2030’s as part of the Mars Sample Return campaign. Wallace has also worked on other planetary missions, and as a program manager for Earth-observing satellites in the aerospace industry. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1984 with a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering, and served in the fast attack submarine fleet. He holds a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Caltech.
This program is presented in conjunction with the Southern California Chapter of the US Naval Academy Alumni Association.