Be an Explorer!

1869: John Wesley Powell leads a small team of explorers on a 1000-mile river voyage from Green River, Wyoming all the way through the Grand Canyon in Arizona! They would encounter many challenges along the way, but also learn many things about this river basin that spans many western states. John Wesley Powell later became the second director of the USGS.

1969: After years of hard work, great successes and terrible failures, U.S. astronauts landed on the Moon. Of course you know that NASA sent them, but did you know that USGS scientists helped to train them? No one knew what the surface of the Moon would be like, so USGS scientists taught the astronauts geology, and helped them learn to walk in space suits over uneven, rocky ground.

2069: How old will you be in 2069, and where will scientists be exploring? Perhaps that year, or a little sooner, or a little later, NASA and the USGS will be celebrating our exploration of Mars, and maybe you will be a part of that. What will we find there? We know more than we knew about the Moon because we have been exploring Mars. One place John Wesley Powell would likely want to go is the Grand Canyon of Mars - Valles Marineris...