NASA plans to launch its last mission to Mars this month, which aims to place the Perseverance rover on the planet’s surface in February 2021.
It is the latest attempt to explore a planet that has spanned the popular imagination for centuries. Like the planetary scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson, author of The Mermaids of Mars,
He says Rachel HumphreysThere is a long history of hopes, theories, and fictional representations of life on Mars. But so far none have been discovered.
The latest mission will search for ‘habitable conditions’ on the planet’s surface and collect rocks for a future mission to bring back to Earth. It’s just one of several different missions to Mars to launch this month, all with one final question in mind: Are we alone in the universe?
Photograph: NASA / Reuters
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