PASADENA, CA - FEBRUARY 18: In this handout image provided by NASA, members of NASA's Perseverance Mars rover team watch in mission control as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft successfully touched down on Mars,, February 18, 2021 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet's geology and past climate, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)
The successful landing of Nasa’s Perseverance rover on Mars last night is a moment of scientific triumph. The mission could uncover profound truths about the Red Planet and our place in the universe.
But we should not content ourselves that science is celebrated and accepted everywhere. The past year has demonstrated the ways science can be sidelined whenever it is politically expedient.
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