Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Svetlana Shkolyar is a pioneering astrobiologist and planetary scientist whose work focuses on the search for life beyond Earth, particularly within Martian lava tubes and subsurface environments. She is the lead architect of the **Mars Astrobiological Cave and Internal habitability Explorer (MACIE)**—a New Frontiers-class mission concept designed to explore Martian caves for biosignatures without the need for drilling. This innovative approach addresses key goals of the Planetary Decadal Survey and MEPAG, and has garnered over 11 citations across its publications. Shkolyar also spearheaded the development of the **Life Detection Knowledge Base (LDKB)**, a community webtool that systematically categorizes potential biosignatures and helps researchers avoid false-positive and false-negative results in life-detection missions. Her taxonomy of biosignatures, published in 2025, is already shaping how astrobiologists design experiments for future Mars and ocean world missions. Notably, the MACIE concept is named after Macie Roberts, one of NASA’s pioneering “human computers,” reflecting Shkolyar’s commitment to honoring overlooked contributors to space science. Her work bridges mission design, robotics, and biosignature science, making her a rising leader in the quest to find life beyond Earth.