A Canadian scientist says helping NASA with a mission to Mars to look for signs of life is the fulfillment of a childhood dream.
Chris Herd of the University of Alberta is one of the advisers on a Mars probe that is to pick up rocks on the red planet, study them, then seal them away to be picked up on a later mission.
Herd says Perseverance, the latest Mars rover, is being sent to an ancient lake bed on a theory that such spots are most likely to contain signs of life.
The Perseverance is to be launched Thursday.
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Herd says he first began dreaming about working with rocks from Mars when he was 13 years old.
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NASA plans to return to Mars to retrieve samples left by Perseverance in about a decade.
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