Nasa's Perseverance prepares to drill first rock sample

The US space agency's Perseverance rover is getting ready to take its first sample of Mars rock.

The core, about the size of a finger, will be packaged in a sealed tube for eventual return to Earth, according to BBC News.

Scientists say their best chance of determining whether Mars ever hosted life is to study its surface materials
in sophisticated home laboratories.

Perseverance landed on the Red Planet in February, in a 45km-wide (30 miles) crater called Jezero.