Ashby School has been given a once in a lifetime chance to get involved in inter-planetary exploration this year - on Mars!

The school's name was included on a microchip contained within NASA's Mars 2020 mission.

Perseverance landed on Mars in February, with Ashby School's name included, and Physics Technician Vikki Dennis described how she managed to get on board with the project.

She told Ashby Nub News: "Two years ago on Twitter, I saw that NASA was asking people to put forward their name, which would be put onto a microchip on the Curiosity Rover, which was aboard the Perseverance spacecraft on its journey to Mars.

"So I excitedly applied, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to say Ashby Physics and Ashby school are on Mars!

"NASA sent me the 'boarding pass' and the rest is space history!

"I regularly tweet updates on our @ashbyPhysics twitter account about Curiosity and the Ingenuity helicopter.

"It's great to be a part of the Mars project, especially on a subject that the Physics department are so interested in."

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You can see NASA's Perseverance Real Time Tracker in our video above.

This is the email Vikki sent to school staff to keep them updated on the exciting news

She wrote: "Today is the day that we land on Mars!

"At 20.15, NASA's Perseverance will begin its attempted landing in the Jezero Crater on the red planet.

"Our name is on a microchip contained within Perseverance. We are so excited to be part of this mission.

"There is an 11 minute delay in communication between Earth and Mars, so Perseverance will be landing with no outside guidance during a sequence known as the 'seven minutes of terror'.

"We won't know the spacecraft's fate until after it as touched down (or left a smoking hole in the surface of Mars). Touchdown is scheduled for 20.55."