Our Solar System At A Glance

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to explore the Moon. Our automated machines have orbited and
landed on Venus and Mars; explored the Sun's environment; observed comets,
and made close-range surveys while flying past Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus and Neptune.

These travelers brought a quantum leap in our knowledge and
understanding of the solar system. Through the electronic sight and other
"senses" of our automated spacecraft, color and complexion have been given
to worlds that for centuries appeared to Earth-bound eyes as fuzzy disks
or indistinct points of light. And dozens of previously unknown objects
have been discovered.

Future historians will likely view these pioneering flights through
the solar system as some of the most remarkable achievements of the 20th
century.

AUTOMATED SPACECRAFT

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's)
automated spacecraft for solar system exploration come in many shapes and
sizes. While they are designed to fulfill separate and specific ...

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antennas pointed toward Earth.
The thrusters can also be used to fine-tune the flight path and speed of
the spacecraft to ensure that a target body is encountered at the planned
distance and on the proper trajectory.

Between 1959 and 1971, NASA spacecraft were dispatched to study the
Moon and the solar environment; they also scanned the inner planets other
than Earth -- Mercury, Venus and Mars. These three worlds, and our own,
are known as the terrestrial planets because they share a solid-rock
composition.

For the early planetary reconnaissance missions, NASA employed a
highly successful series of spacecraft called the Mariners. Their flights
helped shape the ...

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