On this edition of the Sky News Daily podcast with Dermot Murnaghan, we discuss NASA’s launch of the Perseverance rover - the first leg of returning rock samples to Earth with the hope of finding microbial life and paving the way for humans to go to the planet. We look at why we go to these lengths and what’s behind mankind’s obsession with the planet.

We are joined by Professor Sanjeev Gupta from Imperial College London who is going to be helping NASA oversee mission operations from a science and engineering point of view, and Nicholas Booth - who is co-author of ‘The Search for Life on Mars’ and a self-confessed Mars obsessive.

Credits:
Producer.: Nicola Eyers