Nina Lanza
Joined Atlas Obscura in 2026
Dr. Nina Lanza is a planetary scientist, explorer, and science communicator. She leads the Moon to Mars Team in Space Science and Applications at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She is the Principal Investigator of the ChemCam science instrument onboard the Mars Science Laboratory rover and a Co-Investigator for the SuperCam science instrument onboard the Mars 2020 rover, both of which are currently operating on Mars. Dr. Lanza’s research focuses on understanding the origin and nature of manganese minerals on Mars and how they may serve as potential biosignatures. She was part of the JETT5 team that developed and tested the Artemis mission Science Evaluation Room architecture. Dr. Lanza has done geologic fieldwork across the world including the Miller Range, Antarctica; Devon and Axel Heiberg islands in the Canadian Arctic; Rio Tinto, Spain; and the Atacama Desert, Chile. She was a field team member for the Antarctic Search for Meteorites (ANSMET) project in 2015 – 2016, for which she recovered meteorites from remote field locations in Antarctica. She is a sought-after science communicator who has contributed to programming on The Science Channel, National Geographic, BBC, and Curiosity Stream. Dr. Lanza was educated at Smith College (AB), Wesleyan University (MA), and the University of New Mexico (PhD). She is thrilled to be living her childhood dream of working on a spaceship.
