The baseline for assessing damage is usually the natural world as it was before the European age of exploration. (theconversation.com)
While human explorers remain stubbornly stuck in Earth orbit, robotic space probes are preparing for the next great age of exploration: drilling, rolling, sailing, and prospecting where nobody has gone before. (discovermagazine.com)
John Grunsfeld, head of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, opted for the latter, telling the celebrants in Laurel, «Five hundred years from now, we will look back on this as the golden age of exploration.» (discovermagazine.com)