Michelle Rucker

Advisor

Michelle Rucker most recently led NASA’s Mars Architecture Team in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. She began her career in the Houston oil industry, designing down-hole sensors while pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University. Michelle joined NASA in the aftermath of the space shuttle Challenger accident, supporting the investigation team by conducting rocket booster material test and analysis at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. Over her 38-year NASA career, Michelle had the good fortune to work on a wide array of projects, ranging from hypervelocity micrometeoroid/orbital debris impact research to nuclear power and transportation. Many of Michelle’s projects—such as Extravehicular Activity (EVA) spacesuit and tools development and microgravity exercise system engineering—required experts from a range of medical and engineering disciplines. Prior to retiring from NASA in 2025, Michelle’s focus was on exploration beyond low Earth orbit, leading a deep and talented bench of young leaders in developing mission concepts for human exploration of Mars; she also led an internal multi-discipline team chartered with re-architecting the robotic Mars Sample Return mission.