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The USGS created it's first map in 1879, the same year it was founded by Congress for the purpose of the "classification of the public lands."
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Despite the drawbacks, plane-table surveying remained the main method of mapping until the 1940's when a new technology arrived.
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In 1972, NASA launched the first Landsat sattelite. The photograph produced from data gathered by Landsat 1 and its successors showed Earth in a way it had never been seen before.
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In 1999, NASA launched another satellite, the Earth Observing System. Unlike Landsat, EOS does not provide high-resolution images of Earth.
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Mapmaking is an ancient and important method of art. One of the first known maps was made on a clay tablet about 2300 B.C. in ancient Sumeria
