If the Mars Perseverance Rover was lifting off from Cape Canaveral at almost any other time, UNLV Professor Elisabeth “Libby” Hausrath would have had a front-row seat.

On July 30, NASA will launch its newest Mars rover.

UNLV professors Elisabeth “Libby” Hausrath and Christopher Adcock talk about their work related to Mars. Hausrath is one of 10 scientists selected by NASA to study the soil and rock samples from Mars. Adcock studies what can be utilized on Mars.

NASA is getting ready to launch its Mars 2020 rover mission, and a UNLV professor is helping with new discoveries.

Silver, bug-eyed extraterrestrials zooming across the cosmos in bullet-speed spaceships. Green, oval-faced creatures hiding out in a secret fortress at Nevada’s Area 51 base. Cartoonish, throaty-voiced relatives of Marvin the Martian who don armor and Spartan-style helmets.

Geoscience professor Libby Hausrath is one of 10 scientists chosen by NASA to select and analyze soil samples from the Mars 2020 mission set to launch in July.

If there was ever life on Mars, UNLV researcher Elisabeth “Libby” Hausrath will be one of the first to know.

If there were life on Mars, the UNLV researcher, Elisabeth “Libby” Hausrath, would be one of the first to know. The geoscience professor is one of the 10 scientists chosen by NASA to select and analyze soil samples from the “Mars 2020” mission that will be launched in July.