NASA's Perseverance rover to Mars will search for alien life

NASA is set to launch an SUV-sized rover to Mars on Thursday, July 30 with the hopes of answering one question – is there life on the Martian planet? Perseverance will take flight aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 7:50am ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida and is scheduled to arrive on the Red Planet in February 2021. The descend to Mars has been described as'seven minutes of terror,' but if the rover makes a successful landing it will travel to Jerzo Crater - a region scientist speculate was home to a lake 3.5 billion years ago. Here Perseverance will hunt for'biosignatures' of past microbial life and collect rock core samples in slender, metal tools that will be cached on the Martian surface to be retrieved for a return trip to Earth. The prized rover is not making the journey alone, as it will be accompanied by a helicopter named Ingenuity. NASA is comparing this mission'to the Wright brothers moment,' as it will be the first time in history an aerial vehicle has flown on another world.