Astrogeologist Gretchen Benedix is on a mission to solve the mysteries of space NASA can’t

Inside a Perth laboratory, Gretchen Benedix is roaming the surface of Mars.

The astrogeologist is decked out in goggles with purple bobbles, zooming in on craters on a hologram table.

Professor Benedix has always been fascinated by space. When she was a baby, her mother took her outside and held her up to the sky.

“She said to me, ‘there’s a man on the moon’,” she said.

“I don’t remember that at all but I’ve always had a fascination with the sky, the stars.