Space Exploration 38 2014 November Philae, the probe
from the Rosetta mission, is successfully deployed and lands on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko u
2015 March NASA releases a map of the surface of Mars based on data collected from telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. This map shows that a massive ancient ocean once covered most of the northern hemisphere of the Red Planet.
t 2015 July NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft flies past Pluto with six instruments on board to collect information about the dwarf planet.
Use the timeline to answer these questions: 1. Identify two types of animal that were launched into space. 2. What type of information do you think was monitored in these animals? How could this help to prepare for human space missions?
3. List three aspects of space that humans have investigated. 4. Explain the difference between a satellite and a rover. 5. The initial competition to send spacecraft, animals and people into space was called the Space Race. Which two countries do you think were involved in the Space Race?
6. In which year was the 50th anniversary of space exploration celebrated? 7. Name three recent space missions and suggest what type of information they could collect.
