Good morning and welcome to Kid News. I'm Tori.

Today is Thursday, February 18th, 2021.

And we begin with a reminder that it's never a good idea to play in garbage cans,

especially on trash day. Just as seven-year-old Elias who learned that lesson the hard way,

moments after the Florida boy climbed into a trash can outside his grandmother's house,

a sanitation truck arrived.

It's forklift mechanism then scooped up the can, dumping its contents along with Elias

into the back of the vehicle. The driver named Waldo noticed something unusual and within seconds

jumped out of the truck to check his load. It was then he spotted Elias shaken by a short ride,

but okay. The young adventure was all smiles speaking to a reporter later on,

although he did admit thinking he was going to be a mashed potato.

As for the quick-thinking sanitation worker, Waldo is being hailed a hero.

It's the moment of truth for NASA's $3 billion mission to Mars.

Sometime today, Perseverance will attempt to stick a decidedly tricky landing on a 28 mile wide

stretch of rocky terrain just north of the planet's equator. The highly advanced rovers equip

with all the latest bells and whistles, including a supersonic parachute powered by an

autopilot tool to calculate the exact moment of release. Its target, Jezero Crater, chosen for

more than 60 landing sites, because scientists believe it was filled with water 3.5 billion years ago.

Assuming all goes well, the car-sized rover will then collect and package soil samples for later

retrieval. Scientists hope to find evidence of fossilized microbial life embedded in the dirt.

Even if successful, they'll have to be patient. The samples won't make their return to Earth

until 2031 at the earliest. Old Man Winters Grip on the U.S. is an over-yet.

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