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Space

Why 'Martian' Tanya Harrison loves everything about the Red Planet

Tanya Harrison has been fascinated by space since she was 5 and now works on rocks and robots on Mars. But her hobby is about as far from space as you can get

8 May 2019

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Abigail Weibel

Do you have a telescope?

Not at the moment, but I owned one as a child and about 10 years ago. Maybe someday, if I stop moving around so much, I will pick one up again!

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

I wanted to work on something related to space ever since I was 5 years old, thanks to Star Trek. When Mars Pathfinder landed in 1997, my attention turned to Mars specifically.

Explain what you do in one easy paragraph.

I am a planetary geologist, studying features on Mars that…

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