What inspired you to work at NASA? How long does it take to travel to Mars?

What if extraterrestrial life was on Mars before the water left? Could you survive on Mars with a spacesuit?

Students from Rio Rancho Public Schools who attended the virtual, weeklong Native American Summer Academy earlier this month rocketed the Google Meet chat box with these and many other questions. The students, ranging in age from kindergarten through high school, were riveted by the story of Aaron Yazzie, a Diné NASA mechanical engineer who is part of the Mars Perseverance Rover project. As a Jet Propulsion Laboratory leader, he helped to design the drill bits that are digging up Red Planet sand and rock, the material that will eventually make its way to Earth for analysis.

Kelly Pearce, a senior policy fellow with Teach Plus New Mexico, is a K-12 instructional coordinator in Rio Rancho Public Schools.