This artist's scoreboard displays a fictional game between Mars and Earth, with Mars in the lead. It refers to the success rate of sending missions to Mars, both as orbiters and landers. Of the previous 39 missions targeted for Mars from around the world, 15 have been successes and 24 failures. For baseball fans, that's a batting average of .385. The United States has had 13 successes out of 18 attempts, or a “batting average” of .722. NASA's Curiosity rover, set to land on the Red Planet the evening of Aug. 5, 2012 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT), will mark the United States' 19th attempt to tackle the challenge of Mars, and the world's 40th attempt. (Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech)

A car made from parts taken from used vehicles is shown in street Hefei, Anhui Province in China, on Oktober 21, 2013. The machine, which reaches 60 km/h, is the brainchild of self-taught inventor Zhu Runqiang. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

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A pigeon rests on a wild iguana in a tree inside Seminario Park in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Thursday, April 3, 2014. Pigeons coexist with the wild iguanas at this park in the middle of the city surrounded by savannah. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)

A team of ten acrobats form the shape of a racehorse crossing the winning post ridden by Stefanie Hofer to celebrate the upcoming Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup at Ascot Racecourse on July 29, 2014 in Ascot, England. The Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup is the only team-format raceday in the UK and takes place on 9th August. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse)

Sjinkie Knegt of Netherlands, left, and Park Se-Yeong of South Korea crash out as they compete in a men's 1500m short track speedskating final at the Iceberg Skating Palace during the 2014 Winter Olympics, Monday, February 10, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Bernat Armangue/AP Photo)

A Chinese woman stands along a road with her dog at a residential community in Beijing on March 11, 2013. Regulations in Beijing and other major Chinese cities ban residents from keeping large dogs in downtown areas, but rules are sometimes flouted. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews).

The X-47B prototype on Tuesday flew off an aircraft carrier and into the history books. Today's achievement, the first-ever catapult launch of an unmanned aircraft from the flight deck of a carrier, promises to open up a new chapter in the annals of naval aviation. Photo: An X-47B pilot-less drone combat aircraft is launched for the first time off an aircraft carrier, the USS George H. W. Bush, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia, May 14, 2013. The U.S. Navy made aviation history on Tuesday by catapulting an unmanned jet off an aircraft carrier for the first time, testing a long-range, stealthy, bat-winged plane that represents a jump forward in drone technology. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)

“The Amazon river has a newly discovered source. Completed last year and led by West Hansen and documented by award-winning freelance photographer Erich Schlegel, this is the first expedition to paddle from the furthest source of the earth's largest river to the ocean”. – zReportage. Photo: August 19, 2012 – Alpamarca, Peru – Amazon Express white water members Juan Antonio De Ugarte, of Peru, Rafael Ortiz, of Mexico, West Hansen, of the U.S., and Tino Specht, of the U.S., paddle down the Rio Gashan after leaving Lago Acucocha. Lago Acucocha is possibly the dry season source of the Amazon River. (Photo by Erich Schlegel/zReportage via ZUMA Press)