Blaney's research focuses on instrumentation for space missions to determine the chemical composition of bodies in our solar system, including "directing the infrared instrument" on the Spirit rover on Mars,[1] and serving as principal investigator for the Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa, a planned mission to study the surface and internal water ocean of Europa.
[2] Blaney is originally from Ashville, Ohio, the daughter of two teachers, and grew up dreaming of becoming a scientist of some sort before settling on space science.
[3] She majored in mechanical engineering at the Ohio State University, graduating in 1984.
She completed a PhD in geology and geophysics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in 1990;[4] her doctoral research involved Earth-based observation of Mars,[3][5] supervised by Thomas B.
[7] She chaired the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society for the 2021–2022 term.