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The Perseverance rover mission is really an\h
outcome of decades of research and planning\h\h

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for astrobiology. It's just really the coming\h
together of a lot of work and a lot of thoughts.\h\h

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The most exciting part about the Mars Perseverance\h
rover is it will look for signs of ancient life\h\h

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forms, or microbial life forms, on Mars. We might\h
actually have our first opportunity to find the\h\h

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best evidence for preserved traces of life. So\h
Mars 2020 Perseverance is going to Jezero crater.\h\h

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For my research, I'm really excited to see what\h
the rover finds. What I'm really excited about,\h\h

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with this particular mission, is the fact that\h
we're actually going to bring, you know, samples\h\h

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back from the surface. These are drill cores we're\h
bringing back, and so, we'll be able to look at\h\h

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chemistry at depth in those rocks. This will allow\h
us to undertake the most sophisticated analyses\h\h

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that humans know how to do. I also hope that they\h
would be filled with really juicy, organic carbon\h\h

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molecules! A detection of a possible biosignature,\h
something that's really unambiguously biological\h\h

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in nature. And as an astrobiologist who\h
spends my life working on biosignatures,\h\h

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there could be nothing better. And if it\h
finds that, that's going to revolutionize\h\h

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what we think about the present day\h
habitability of Mars. This is why\h\h

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we go and explore other worlds; to find\h
what's out there that we can't even imagine\h\h

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based on our experiences here on Earth. My\h
mantra on this comes from Carl Sagan who said,\h\h

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that "if it's just us, it seems like an awfully\h
big waste of space." Perseverance just really\h\h

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shows how if you get a diverse group of very\h
creative people together, you can solve problems\h\h