UK scientists join NASA in search for life on Mars

UK scientists are set to play an essential role in NASA’s forthcoming Perseverance mission to Mars, which set for launch on July 30, 2020.  

Backed by the UK Space Agency, researchers at Imperial College London and the Natural History Museum will help the NASA’s Perseverance rover select Martian rock and soil samples to be brought back from the Red Planet as it searches for evidence of ancient microbial life.

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Perseverance Rover is scheduled to land on Mars’ 28-mile wide Jezero crater in February 2021, a location containing sediments of an ancient river delta where evidence of past life could be preserved.

According to the UK Space Agency, Professor Sanjeev Gupta, from Imperial College London, will help NASA oversee mission operations from a science and engineering point of view, and Imperial’s Professor Mark Sephton will assist in identifying samples that could contain evidence of past life.