NASA's Perseverance rover breaks Mars driving distance record

Summarised from 3 outlets · Updated 13 Oct, 13:20 · Archive

NASA's Perseverance rover has travelled 28.10 miles on Mars, breaking the previous record held by Opportunity.

NASA's Perseverance rover has broken the record for the farthest distance travelled by any vehicle on another world. As of 11 October, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover had travelled 28.10 miles (45.22 km), surpassing NASA's Opportunity rover, which covered 28.06 miles (45.16 km) across Mars's surface. Perseverance achieved the milestone in five and a half years, compared to nearly 15 years for Opportunity.

The rover's maximum speed is 0.1 mph, making the distance covered particularly significant given the challenging Martian terrain it must navigate. Perseverance has travelled more than 90 per cent of its total distance autonomously, using its AutoNav system to image terrain, identify hazards in real time and navigate between waypoints chosen by its planners.

Perseverance is now heading to a region called Idubi, where it will investigate a feature called 'Lac de Charmes' containing some of the oldest terrain ever explored in the solar system. NASA stated that the rocks and terrain in this area are so ancient that their Earth equivalents have been erased by erosion and plate tectonics. The science team hopes to find traces of ancient hydrothermal systems that may provide evidence of conditions once conducive to microbial life.

NASA's Perseverance rover breaks Mars driving distance record — Image: Engadget

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How it is being reported

Mars rover sets new driving record on surface of another worldNASA's Perseverance Mars rover has set a new record for the longest distance traveled on the surface of another planet, the space agency said.CBS News · 13 Oct, 14:02
NASA's Perseverance rover breaks record for off-world driving distanceNASA's Perseverance Mars rover just broke the record for the farthest distance traveled by any vehicle on another world.Engadget · 13 Oct, 13:01
NASA’s Perseverance rover breaks record for off-planet driving on MarsThe rover reached the milestone 5½ years into its mission to explore if conditions conducive to microbial life ever existed on Earth's neighbor.The Japan Times · 13 Oct, 09:58

In this story: NASA · Perseverance · Opportunity · Mars

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