The Story
It started with a library VHS of Cosmos
I’m Dr. Moogega Cooper, and “Moo” is fine. I keep Earth’s microbes off the spacecraft we send to other worlds, so that if we ever find life out there, we’ll know it isn’t ours.
16
High school grad
24
PhD, Mech. Eng.
Feb 2021
Perseverance lands
From a New Jersey library to the Mars clean room
As the real-life “Guardian of the Galaxy,” Dr. Moogega (Moo-ji-gae) “Moo” Cooper holds the awesome responsibility of keeping the Red Planet safe from any of the Earth’s contaminants. Her work with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is integral to the ongoing mission to discern whether Mars could be habitable for humans and to ensure that we don’t harm what’s already there—a job she has been working up to for most of her life.
After graduating from high school at 16, Cooper studied physics as an undergraduate, received a master’s degree and went on to earn her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at 24 years old with a dissertation on sterilizing spacecraft materials.
Cooper is passionate about empowering organizations and others to build resilience, overcome obstacles, and achieve their goals. A role model for women in science and technology, she also loves introducing wider audiences to the wonders of the STEAM world. Through her work talking to girls and boys from underrepresented communities and appearing on shows like Because Space and Bill Nye Saves the World, Cooper is helping to build the next generation of strong leaders.
Cooper is a recipient of several awards, including the NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal, the Charles Elachi Award for Exceptional Early Career Achievement, and JPL Voyager Awards for Technical Leadership.
The strangest job at NASA
What planetary protection actually is
If we carry a stowaway microbe to Mars and then “discover” it there, we’ve ruined the biggest question humanity has ever asked. Planetary protection is how we keep that answer uncontaminated.
Leaving Earth
Spacecraft are assembled in clean rooms, swabbed, cultured, and baked until the number of surviving microbes is astonishingly small. My job was to prove Perseverance met that bar before anyone lit the rocket.
Coming home
The samples Perseverance is caching will one day return to Earth. The other half of planetary protection is making sure whatever comes back is handled as carefully as anything humanity has ever received.
Trajectory
Career timeline
Age 16
Graduates high school
Two years early, already set on space after borrowing Carl Sagan’s Cosmos from the library.
2006
B.A. Physics, Hampton University
Undergraduate research on the path to spacecraft engineering.
2010
M.S. & Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, Drexel University
Doctorate at 24. Dissertation: non-equilibrium plasma sterilization of spacecraft materials.
2010s
Joins NASA JPL Planetary Protection Group
From dissertation research to protecting real missions.
Mars 2020
Planetary Protection Lead, Perseverance rover
Responsible for verifying a $2.7B spacecraft left Earth biologically clean.
Feb 2021
Perseverance lands in Jezero Crater
The most scrutinized hardware humanity has sent to another planet, carrying none of our biology.
Today
Group Supervisor, Biotechnology & Planetary Protection Group
Leading the team that protects both directions of travel.
Recognition
Awards & honors
NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal
NASA
Charles Elachi Award for Exceptional Early Career Achievement
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JPL Voyager Awards for Technical Leadership
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
2026 Commencement Speaker
Drexel University
Full academic & mission history (PDF)