NASA's Perseverance rover sets off-planet driving record, passing Opportunity on Mars
NASA's Perseverance has driven 45.2 km (28.1 miles) since landing in February 2021, passing the distance Opportunity covered on Mars from 2004 to 2018. The agency announced the milestone on 12 October while the rover heads toward an area called Idubi.
A new distance record
NASA's Perseverance rover has driven 45.2 km (28.1 miles) since landing on Mars in February 2021, farther than any vehicle has driven on the surface of any world other than Earth. According to The New York Times, the odometer passed 28.06 miles on Sunday, 11 October, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced the total of 28.1 miles on Monday, 12 October. The figure surpasses the distance Opportunity covered from 2004 until it fell silent in 2018, which outlets report as 45 km or 45.16 km. Mission managers had expected the milestone in August, but the rover stopped for two months to study intriguing light-colored rocks that may be among the oldest ever studied on Mars.
- Opportunity begins its mission on Mars
- Opportunity falls silent
- Perseverance lands on Mars
- Odometer passes 28.06 miles
- NASA announces the record at 45.2 km (28.1 miles)
Route through Jezero Crater
Perseverance has focused on Jezero Crater, a region in Mars' northern hemisphere believed to have been flooded with water and home to a lake basin billions of years ago. The record was set on a drive toward an area called Idubi, through the region off the crater's western rim nicknamed Lac de Charmes. Le Soir reports that NASA describes the rocks and terrain of this area as older than their terrestrial counterparts, which erosion and plate tectonics have long erased. The companion rover Curiosity operates in Gale Crater near the Martian equator. Katie Stack Morgan, the project scientist, explained the mission's priorities in an interview in early October.
Science is the reason that rover is on the surface of Mars.
Self-driving and endurance
NASA credits much of the rover's progress to AutoNav, its autonomous navigation system. Steven Lee, the project manager for NASA's two Mars rovers, Perseverance and Curiosity, said 90% of drives are done autonomously, with no human intervention. The rover's Vision Compute Element, a fast co-processor, lets it process images and run its self-driving software almost continuously during drives. Lee described the core sequence of the system in the following words.
Perseverance takes stereo images of the terrain ahead, generates a 3D software map, and selects the safest path towards a drive goal.
Health and outlook
Lee told Reuters that the rover's hardware and instruments are in good shape, and he added that the systems are fully assessed for the long term.
A recent assessment of all systems concluded that they are capable of operating well into the 2030s, likely beyond.
Its mobility mechanisms are being tested to show it can drive 100 km (62 miles) or more, with hardware being tested to the equivalent of 150 km to 300 km (93 miles to 186 miles). Perseverance is showing no signs of slowing down, Lee added. The rover most likely still has many miles to go in the coming years.
