NASA’s Perseverance is a robot with six wheels on Mars. On October 11, it reached 28.10 miles of travel. This is a new driving record for a vehicle on another world. Opportunity held the old record of 28.06 miles. Perseverance took about five and a half years. Opportunity took almost 15 years.
Perseverance can find safe paths by itself. Its system guided over 90% of its travel. Opportunity’s system guided about 5%.
NASA extended the mission through about the end of 2028. Perseverance has collected 29 rock and soil samples. It also found a possible sign of past life in one rock. This does not prove that life once existed on Mars.
