The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built blasted off for the red planet Thursday as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life.

The U.S. space agency's $2.4 billion Perseverance mission is expected to reach Mars next February.

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.