NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has broken the record for the farthest distance traveled by any vehicle on another world, the space agency announced. The six-wheeled, nuclear-powered buggy had covered 28.10 miles (45.22 km) as of October 11th, surpassing NASA's Opportunity rover, which rolled 28.06 miles (45.16 km) across the red planet's surface.
Perseverance reached the milestone in just five and a half years, compared to nearly 15 for the plucky Opportunity. Although its maximum speed is a glacial 0.1 mph, the 2,260-pound rover has handled challenging terrain. It recently arrived at a region called Idubi, where it will investigate a feature called "Lac de Charmes," home to some of the oldest terrain ever explored in the solar system. NASA said the rocks there are so ancient that their Earthly equivalents have been erased by erosion and plate tectonics, and the science team hopes Idubi will reveal traces of ancient hydrothermal systems.
Perseverance's longevity is partly due to its autonomous Auto Nav system, which images terrain and identifies hazards in real time while driving between waypoints chosen by planners. Processing 600,000 measurement points with each glance, the rover has traveled more than 90 percent of its total distance autonomously. A recent software update lets it roll more and steer less to reduce wear, while checking its position against orbital maps mid-drive.
The team next hopes to overcome camera glare from sunlight that impairs the rover's vision, which would allow longer working days. Meanwhile, the Curiosity rover continues exploring Mars and has traveled 38.15 km (23.7 miles) to date. Among US vehicles, the manned Apollo 17 rover holds the next-longest distance at 35.74 km (22.21 miles).
Source: Engadget · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing