Maria Zuber

Um, I had actually never really thought about being the lead of a full-on NASA mission.

Um, I was leading academic departments, um, companies, I was leading teams of people, and then I got an email from, uh, two scientists at Jet Propulsion Laboratory saying, "We really thought that paper you just published with your colleagues, Ben Weiss and Maria Zuber, was so interesting.

We wonder if you'd like to work on a mission proposal to test your scientific ideas in that paper." And so, you know, speaking of not delayed gratification, my instant answer to that is, "Yes, I would.

Let's find out what this is about.