By Michael Onesi
Chris Herd, Artsci’97, is hoping to answer a fundamental question humanity has wondered for centuries: Is there life on other planets?
Herd, a planetary geologist and one of the world’s top experts on meteorites from Mars, is working with NASA on the Mars Perseverance rover, which landed on the red planet on Feb. 18 after a 470-million-kilometre journey. He is involved in collecting rock samples that will advance the project’s primary mission: to search for signs of microbial life.