I watched the live feed from the mission control room at JPL in Pasadena last Thursday, as Perseverance made its landing on Mars. Having seen an animation of what was going to happen, I kept saying to myself 'There's no bloody way this is going to work properly'. But it did, and it's an incredible achievement.
Over and above all the exploration the rover is going to do, I think we needed something like this to raise our eyes from our pandemic navel gazing. It's also a swift kick in the nether portions to all the anti-science wafflers with their almost medieval superstitious claptrap. I'm surprised they haven't gathered outside the JPL screaming for the witches to be burnt. So, well done to the Colonials - I must say, they are doing rather well, considering they are temporarily outside The Empire.
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