Perseverance to Break 45.16-km Mars Driving Record in 5 Years
Updated
Updated · Ars Technica · Aug 7
Perseverance to Break 45.16-km Mars Driving Record in 5 Years
3 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Aug 7
Summary
Next week, Perseverance is set to pass 45.16 km on Mars, overtaking Opportunity for the longest distance driven by any vehicle on another world.
NASA says the rover reached the mark in about a third of Opportunity’s time because its onboard auto-navigation system can image terrain, plot safe routes and drive far more autonomously.
Curiosity, a closely related rover, has similar navigation software but an older computer with some 1990s-era chips, limiting autonomous driving to about 10% of its travel.
That hardware gap helps explain why Curiosity has covered 38.6 km in roughly 15 years, underscoring how much rover mobility has improved since Perseverance landed in February 2021.