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the first image from mars by the nasa rover spirit.

after the death of the space shuttle columbia and her crew last year, nasa have hit two straight home runs: (1) the stardust mission to capture and return particles from a comet's tail and (2) the landing of the mars rover spirit.

space exploration costs a lot of money. (over $800 million just for the mars rover spirit.) having some success gives me a lot of pride in being an american. when it relates to space exploration, nasa and the united states are equivalent to the michael jordan-led olympic dream team. it's not easy doing what nasa's doing. look at the recent beagle 2 vehicle, the european space agency's problematic probe.