Rachel Harris

Rachel Harris is an astrobiologist working in federal science strategy at NASA Headquarters, where she operates daily in the long shadow of one of President Kennedy’s most enduring legacies: the Space Race. She coordinates the development of the NASA Decadal Astrobiology Research and Exploration Strategy (NASA-DARES), NASA’s next roadmap for advancing its congressional mandate to search for the origins, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe.

 

Rachel has also supported Mars exploration and Mars Sample Return through several NASA-facing and community efforts. She contributed to the landing site selection process for the Perseverance rover and was selected as one of 16 members of the joint NASA–ESA Mars Sample Return Campaign Science Group (MCSG). As part of MCSG, she served as the Strategic Science Communications Chair and helped curate the sample cache at the Three Forks Depot in Jezero Crate.