NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity Hits New Distance Record

The US space agency NASA's decade-old Mars rover Opportunity has set a new off-Earth, off-road distance record. The rover has logged just over 25 miles (40 km) on the surface of Mars to surpass the record set in 1973 by a Russian probe on the moon.

Opportunity arrived on Mars in January 2004. The aging but intrepid rover was built to drive only about a single kilometre but has continued to operate far beyond its design capabilities.

The robot rover, a six-wheeled vehicle about the size of a golf cart, found evidence that fresh water once pooled on the surface of Mars earlier this year.

The rover, on Sunday, advanced another 157 feet (48 meters) as it continued along the rim of a Martian rater. According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California, this puts Opportunity's total odometer at 25.01 miles (40.25 km).

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Mars Exploration Rover project manager John Callas said, "Opportunity has driven farther than any other wheeled vehicle on another world." The JPL is a NASA Centre in Pasadena, California.

The rover still has miles to go. As per scientists, the next plan is to direct Opportunity to a nearby Martian valley. This would extend its accumulated operating distance to 26.2 miles, the traditional length of a marathon.