Science News Roundup: UK variant not causing worse illness in children; NASA rover Perserveracne on track for daredevil landing and more

UK variant not causing worse illness in children NASA rover Perseverance on track for daredevil landing on Mars NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, the most advanced robotic astrobiology lab ever flown to another world, neared the end of its seven-month, 293-million-mile (470-million-km) journey on Wednesday, hours away from a daredevil landing attempt on the Red Planet.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

UK variant not causing worse illness in children; COVID-19 breath test shows promise

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. UK variant not causing worse illness in children.

NASA rover Perseverance on track for daredevil landing on Mars

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, the most advanced robotic astrobiology lab ever flown to another world, neared the end of its seven-month, 293-million-mile (470-million-km) journey on Wednesday, hours away from a daredevil landing attempt on the Red Planet. With 370,000 miles (596,000 km) left to travel, Perseverance was hurtling through space on track for a bull's-eye touchdown on Thursday inside a vast basin called Jezero Crater, site of a long-vanished Martian lake bed and river delta, mission managers said on Tuesday.

Want to be an astronaut? Europe is recruiting for the first time in 11 years

Europe is to recruit new astronauts for the first time in 11 years as leading space-faring nations set their sights on missions to the Moon and, eventually, Mars. The European Space Agency (ESA) is looking to add up to 26 permanent and reserve astronauts. It is strongly encouraging women to apply and is looking into how it might add people with disabilities to its roster to boost diversity among crews.

NASA rover faces 'seven minutes of terror' before landing on Mars

When NASA's Mars rover Perseverance, a robotic astrobiology lab packed inside a space capsule, hits the final stretch of its seven-month journey from Earth this week, it is set to emit a radio alert as it streaks into the thin Martian atmosphere. By the time that signal reaches mission managers some 127 million miles (204 million km) away at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles, Perseverance will already have landed on the Red Planet - hopefully in one piece.

Another small step: Tiny Hungarian water-tracker aims to rove the Moon

A miniature rover being developed to explore the Moon's surface is on track to join the search for water there, its Hungarian inventors believe - using a device that weighs less than a bag of sugar. Named after a Hungarian breed of dog, the Puli rover is a low-cost platform designed to carry different payloads, including the ice water snooper, which won the 2020 "Honey, I Shrunk the NASA Payload" challenge, a competition organised by the U.S. space agency.

Teeth from Siberian mammoths yield oldest DNA ever recovered

Scientists have recovered the oldest DNA on record, extracting it from the molars of mammoths that roamed northeastern Siberia up to 1.2 million years ago in research that broadens the horizons for understanding extinct species. The researchers said on Wednesday they had recovered and sequenced DNA from the remains of three individual mammoths - elephant cousins that were among the large mammals that dominated Ice Age landscapes - entombed in permafrost conditions conducive to preservation of ancient genetic material.