SPACE scientist Paul Henshall is a man with a mission.

The 21 year-old from Upwood Road in Lowton has recently returned from an amazing 10 weeks in the USA as part of an international team involved in NASA space mission design.

Paul, who from an early age has had an avid interest in space technology and sci-fi, was offered a research fellowship at the California Institute of Technology.

He spent almost three months in the USA testing the feasibility of advanced technology on a NASA return mission to bring samples back to Earth from the Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury. Paul's particular remit was for the spacecraft's direct ion drive propulsion.

This week Paul resumed studies at Leicester University where he is in the fourth year of a degree course in Physics with space science and technology. The former Lowton St Catherine's and Newton St Aelred's pupil aims to go on to do a PhD course with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) -- NASA's leading centre for space exploration -- his ultimate aim.

"I've always been interested in space and sci-fi," said Paul, whose 19 years-old brother, Neil, is studying geography at Keele University.