Dr. Carol Stoker
Carol Stoker is a staff planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. Most recent work is focused on developing instruments and robotic systems for space exploration and testing them in terrestrial analog environments. She has led field experiments in the Antarctic, Arctic, undersea, and deserts in the southwestern US to demonstrate robotic systems to search for life on other planets. Her projects have won six NASA group achievement awards and she has over 100 publications. She is actively involved in the robotic exploration of Mars and in planning for future human exploration. She is currently a co-investigator on the Mars Phoenix mission that recently performed sampling near the north pole of Mars to search for habitable environments for life. She also currently leads activities to develop and test drilling systems to access the Martian subsurface to search for evidence of life.
She graduated in Physics, Cum Laude, from the University of Utah, and earned a Ph.D. at the Dept. of Astrogeophysics, University of Colorado. Carol has a broad range of interests and skills, including:
Life in extreme environments as analogs for extraterrestrial life, most recent work has focused on subsurface life.
Developing the scientific rationale, methodology, and technology to search for extraterrestrial life.
Lead for numerous field experiments in extreme space analog environments involving interdisciplinary teams of engineers and scientists.
Virtual Reality information systems for remote robot operations and data analysis.
Scientific, engineering, and operations aspects of human planetary exploration.