NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has officially traveled more miles than any other vehicle has on another planet. Perseverance’s odometer hit 28.10 miles, surpassing the Opportunity rover’s 28.06 miles. Opportunity explored the Martian planet from 2004 to 2018.

Perseverance hit the milestone on its 2,006th Martian day, or sol, of its mission. It took the rover five and a half years to travel further than Opportunity did in 15 years.

Exploring Ancient Rocks

Mars Perseverance
Perseverance takes a selfie with the Ingenuity Mars helicopter; Photo: NASA

The record came while Perseverance was driving toward an area named “Idubi” inside a region called “Lac de Charmes.” This rocky area features grounds that are around 4 billion years old. To put it into perspective on how old these rocks are, stones this old have long been wiped away on Earth by weather and tectonic plates.

To date, Perseverance has collected 29 rock and dirt samples during its 28.10-mile journey, and counting. The next stop on the rover’s journey is Rainbow Falls, where it will explore a 328-foot-wide section of ancient crust formed by a huge impact.

“It is an honor to be working on Perseverance at a moment when the technology has evolved to the point that drives like these are routine,” said Steven Lee, the project manager of the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The original mission called for no more than 12.4 miles of driving. We’ve blown well past that, and with all mobility systems fully operational and favorable extended-ground-life test results, we expect Perseverance to keep adding to this record for many years to come.”

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NASA has approved an extension to keep the rover working on the crater rim through late 2028.

Perseverance Navigates Mars Autonomously

The rover has traveled all this way on Mars thanks to its auto-navigation software called AutoNav. Perseverance was able to beat Opportunity’s record in such a short time because the older rovers had to stop frequently to wait for remote engineers to navigate safe routes.

In 1997, the Sojourner rover evaluated 20 measurement points, which are data points that a rover evaluates to map the environment ahead, when checking its path. Perseverance checks about 600,000 points with every glance. For 90% of its drive, Perseverance uses AutoNav, which allows it to cover 1,351 feet per day.

“The rover that broke this record did so by making its own decisions about the path. Given the autonomy to just go, Perseverance is a better driver than the one that landed, and we’re not done,” said Mark Maimone, deputy team chief for robotic operations on Perseverance. “Our newest software teaches Perseverance to steer less and roll more, and to check its own position against orbital maps mid-drive.”

Maimone added, “The next frontier is sunlight itself. Glare in the navigation cameras is why we park by mid-afternoon if we’re driving toward the Sun, and if we can teach the rover to see past those artifacts, every rover that follows gets a longer working day.”