Mars rover to be named after DNA pioneer Rosalind Franklin, European Space Agency announces

The European Space Agency will name its new Exomars rover Rosalind Franklin, after the DNA pioneer, it has announced. The lander will arrive on the red planet in 2021, as part of a pioneering mission to explore the surface. "The prominent scientist behind the discovery of the structure of DNA will leave her symbolic footprint on Mars in 2021," the team behind the mission said in its announcement. When it arrives, the ExoMars rover will hunt for evidence of past life on Mars. It will drill into the surface and examine the soil in hope of finding traces that could have been left by alien life that might once have been there.