NASA’s Perseverance rover has now driven farther than any other vehicle in the solar system — except those on Earth, of course. On Sunday, Perseverance’s odometer ticked past 28.06 miles, the distance it has traveled in and around Jezero Crater since it landed on Mars in February 2021. That surpasses the distance that Opportunity, one of NASA’s earlier, smaller Mars rovers, trundled from 2004 until it fell silent in 2018.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which operates the rover, announced the news on Monday after confirming Perseverance’s location and new total driving distance: 28.1 miles. Mission managers had thought Perseverance would pass the milestone back in August, but then it came upon intriguing, light-colored rocks that may be some of the oldest ever studied on Mars. And thus, it dawdled for two months.
"Science is the reason that rover is on the surface of Mars," Katie Stack Morgan, the project scientist, said in an interview in early October. "We’re excited to get the record when we get it. But in the meantime, it’s the rocks that really drive the mission." Perseverance most likely still has many miles to go in the coming years.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing