Mars rover Perseverance breaks off-Earth driving record

NASA’s active rover on Mars now has driven farther than any previous moon or planetary exploration vehicles, the space agency said Monday. The six-wheeled rover reached 28.1 miles on Sunday, breaking the previous record of 28.06 miles set by NASA’s Opportunity rover. Opportunity took nearly 15 years to travel that distance, while Perseverance set the new one in under six years, the agency said.

The Perseverance rover’s self-driving system has helped it successfully navigate rough terrain, according to NASA. The system can operate continuously while the rover rolls forward. It uses camera images to build a 3D map of hazards and plot a course between pre-selected waypoints, according to NASA. The agency’s first Mars rover, Sojourner, which deployed in 1997, could assess its path using 20 measurements—but Perseverance processes about 600,000 measurements when charting its course. Sojourner traveled only about 330 feet over 80 days.

Recent tests showed the Perseverance rover could keep operating well beyond its original mission timeline, NASA said. Perseverance is heading toward an area called Idubi through the Lac de Charmes region, near Mars’ Jezero Crater. Light-toned boulders have been spotted there and scientists hope to find evidence of ancient hydrothermal systems at Idubi, according to NASA. Perseverance will likely remain in the area, collecting rock samples and other observations, until the end of 2028.

Dig deeper: Read Liz Lykins’ report on SpaceX’s pivot from Mars colony plans to a moon base.