NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and members of Congress visit JPL

The visit highlighted the MSR mission which will one day help scientists get rock and dirt samples from Mars back to Earth.

Sophie Flay Image
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
NASA administrator and members of Congress visit JPL
The visit highlighted the Mars Sample Return mission which will one day help scientists get rock and dirt samples from Mars back to Earth.

NASA's Administrator Bill Nelson and the members of Congress visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Tuesday.

Nelson is on tour visiting three of NASA's campuses to learn more about the progress of missions underway.

The visit highlighted the Mars Sample Return mission which will one day help scientists get rock and dirt samples from Mars back to Earth.

"We have explored and sampled rocks that formed from bodies of hot magma, lava lakes, as well as rivers, lakes, and delta deposits that may have once contained signs of ancient life on Mars," said Katie Stack Morgan, a scientist at JPL.

The last stop on the local visit was to see the Europa Clipper which is a spacecraft that will be sent into space in 2024 to study Jupiter's icy, wet moon called Europa.