Word: valleys
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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There was, of course, no one in Mars' Ares Vallis floodplain to mark the moment when NASA's 3-ft.-tall Pathfinder spacecraft dropped into the soil of the long-dry valley. But there was a planet more than 100 million miles away filled with people who were paying heed when it landed, appropriately enough, on July 4. For the first time in 21 years, a machine shot from Earth once again stirred up the Martian dust. More important, for the first time ever, it was going to be able to keep stirring it up well after it landed. Curled...
Though Sojourner won't get anywhere fast, where it does go should hold a lot of secrets. Ares Vallis was chosen as the landing site in the first place because the now dusty basin was once the largest known floodplain in the solar system. Water rushed into the valley at up to 170 m.p.h., carrying a giant spelunker's bag of rocks with it. Without venturing very far from where the lander set down, the rover could thus use its cameras and X-ray spectrometer to sample geology from all over the planet. Sojourner is scheduled to conduct these studies...
Tonight the thrill is greater. Earlier in the day, a rocket ship dropped a cluster of airbags into the flood delta of a valley called Ares, and all the Main Street parades and the hot dog cookouts and three-legged races stopped cold. Five hours later, televised pictures emerged depicting a rust-colored desert with rust-colored rocks and a distant hill against a gray-brown sky. The scenery was boring, the excitement overwhelming. People on TV spoke of how great and adventurous America is, how like a Pathfinder--a nation of explorers and pioneers. But the feeling...
Painstaking as the rover's exploration of Ares Vallis will be, it should be worth the effort. The water that flooded the valley billions of years ago came from all over the planet, carrying all manner of rocks with it. Sojourner will pick through this geological boneyard, photographing the remains and using X-ray spectrometers to study their composition...
...that takes the reason prisoner," said afterward, "He has a cut on his ear, and he didn't want to fight. Regardless of what I did, he had been butting for two fights. I addressed it in the ring...What else could I do?" Holyfield, who was taken to Valley Hospital after the fight to surgically repair the ear, addressed Tyson by saying "I truly believe fear itself causes people to do the easy thing. The quickest way was to get out. If you think you can whup me, do it with the gloves on. You had a chance...