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About

Y. S. Goreva is a planetary scientist whose work bridges the gap between extraterrestrial sample collection and the geochemical evolution of primitive Solar System materials. Her most prominent contribution is to the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, where she played a key role in developing the Sampling and Caching Subsystem (SCS)—the robotic system designed to collect and seal Martian rock and regolith samples for eventual return to Earth. This landmark 2020 paper, with over 130 citations, details the engineering and scientific strategy behind the first-ever sample cache on another planet. Goreva also investigates the thermal histories of carbonaceous chondrites, demonstrating how heat exposure can mobilize and redistribute labile elements like zinc and cadmium, offering critical insights into asteroidal alteration processes. Her work on these primitive meteorites helps constrain the conditions present in the early Solar System. By combining hands-on mission engineering with fundamental geochemical analysis, Goreva exemplifies how laboratory studies of meteorites directly inform the interpretation of samples collected by robotic explorers.