Exploration - SPACE EXPLORATION | Expanding the boundaries of human understanding

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SPACE EXPLORATION | Expanding the boundaries of human understanding

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Destination Mars

Explore the solar system’s largest known canyon – Mars’ Mariner Valley. The canyon is 20 times wider than Earth’s Grand Canyon, and its walls stand nearly as high above the valley floor as Mount Everest towers above the Earth’s surface.

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Feature Article

Cassini Mission Extended

NASA extends by two years the international Cassini-Huygens mission, ensuring more stunning images and greater knowledge of Saturn and its moons.

On the Record

Quote Beginning This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. End Quote

Neil Armstrong, July 20, 1969

Cosmic Trivia

Quick facts about the solar system and the universe
- 6
  Explorer 6 provided the first television views of the Earth in August 1959.
- 43
  NASA starts counting down to a shuttle launch at T minus 43 hours. T stands for “time until launch.”
- 75
  75 years is the approximate amount of time that passes between appearances of Halley's Comet.
  
  (Related article: NASA Stardust Findings May Change View of Comet Formation)
- 100
  100 billion stars are in the Milky Way Galaxy, but the unaided human eye can see only about 6,000 stars from Earth.
  
  (Related article: International Astronomers Publish Largest 3-D Map of Universe)
- 14
  14 billion years is the current best estimate of the age of the universe.
  
  (Related article: NASA Hubble Space Telescope Celebrates 15th Anniversary)

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Space Exploration

The United States, often with partner nations, is exploring the solar system. On Mars, NASA's exploration rovers landed in 2004 for a 90-day mission, but after three years still transmit. More distantly, the Cassini-Huygens mission explores Saturn.

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