NASA Mars Rover Sets Record That Was 15 Years In The Making
Perseverance, NASA’s little rover that could (or can), has set an all-time off-world driving record, traveling farther on another planetary body than any vehicle in human history. Crossing the 28.10 mile (45.22 kilometer) mark across the unforgiving Mars terrain, the six-wheeled robotic scientist barely pipped the previous record held by NASA’s Opportunity rover by 0.04 miles. But hey, a win's a win.
Perhaps more impressively, Perseverance accomplished this milestone in just over five and a half years on its 2,006th Martian day, or sol. In comparison, Opportunity took nearly 15 years to log its 28.06 miles before its mission ended in 2018. The new record spotlights how drastically space exploration technology has advanced over recent decades, although some would say that luck has played an equal factor, too.
From a technical perspective, much of Perseverance’s speed and endurance is thanks to the onboard artificial intelligence navigation system, known as...
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