Nasa Mars rover interview: How robot driving experts control Perseverance from Earth

We’re just a day away from Nasa’s historic Perseverance rover trundling out from its spacecraft to begin its mission to hunt for signs of ancient life on the Red Planet.

In an exclusive interview we speak to mobility system engineer and rover planner for the mission Tyler Del Sesto, who works on the team at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Perseverance will be the second rover operational on Mars, and there have been some considerable upgrades to its capabilities, including new autonomous driving and hazard-avoidance software, enhanced cameras and onboard lab capabilities and for the first time a microphone & helicopter.

Scientists have raised concerns that reopening schools may push coronavirus R value - the virus’s production rate - above 1.

Research by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggests reopening UK schools could increase R from a baseline of 0.8 to between 1.0 and 1.5.

South Korean intelligence officials have put North Korea in the frame for trying steal Covid-19 vaccine technology from US pharma giant Pfizer.

The country’s spy chief has briefed politicians over the attempted data breach, though it is unclear whether data was stolen.

A European consumer watchdog is accusing TikTok of breaching users’ rights and is failing to protect children from harmful content. And, beware of your emails - companies are deploying even more invisible trackers inside them to trace your interactions with their communications.

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