Nasa’s Perseverance rover set to land on red planet

Nasa’s Mars rover Perseverance hurtled into the final stretch of its seven-month journey from Earth en route to a nail-biting landing attempt on Thursday on an ancient, alien lake bed, where scientists hope to find signs of fossilised microbial life.

Perseverance, the most advanced astrobiology lab ever flown to another world, was headed for a self-guided touchdown inside a vast, rocky basin called Jezero Crater at the edge of a remnant river delta carved into the red planet billions of years ago.