NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Dr. Mary Sue Bell is a planetary geologist and a member of the mission support team for NEEMO 14.

Dr. Mary Sue Bell is a planetary geologist working in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate (ARES) at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. ARES is where all of NASA's extra-terrestrial samples are curated. These samples include such diverse materials as meteorites from Antarctica, Apollo Lunar samples, Genesis solar wind samples, and Stardust comet particles. All of these samples require unique curation techniques to preserve the pristine nature of the materials for study by scientists around the world.

Mary Sue earned her Ph.D. from the University of Houston. She studies meteorites from Mars and the structures created by meteorites impacting the Earth and Mars. Dr. Bell works with a variety of NASA's analog programs including NEEMO, Desert RATS, the Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition, and the Antarctic Search for Meteorites. Dr. Bell develops and tests exploration scenarios for missions that simulate the kinds of activities astronauts would conduct on a variety of planetary surfaces to collect geologic data and examine samples. These activities support NASA's mission to send humans explorers beyond low Earth orbit.