NASA Mars Rover completes marathon distance … with a finish time of just 11 YEARS
NASA today celebrated a milestone for its Mars Rover mission as one of the geological robots completed its first marathon.
It has taken the NASA vehicle 11 years and two months to complete its 26.21mile (42.19kilometre) distance across Mars.
The Opportunity rover has beaten the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 Moon Rover to become the long-distance champion of any off-Earth vehicle.
This is the first time any human enterprise has exceeded the distance of a marathon on the surface of another world
"This is the first time any human enterprise has exceeded the distance of a marathon on the surface of another world," said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"A first time happens only once."
Scientists and engineers plan to celebrate Opportunity's achievement by holding their own marathon relay at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission.
The plucky Opportunity Rover touched down on the red planet in January 2004 for a three-month mission to search for evidence of liquid water on the surface of the Red Planet.
The marathon-travelling robot was part of a pair – dubbed Spirit and Opportunity – launched to opposite sides of Mars by NASA in summer 2003.
For the last 4,079 days, the Rover has searched and characterised a variety of rocks and soils which scientists believe hold clues to past water activity on Mars.
As the rover continued to trump its predicted lifespan, NASA chose the rim of Endeavour Crater as its long-term destination.
Opportunity reached the west rim of the crater on March 11 2015.
Its partner, the Spirit, has its mission terminated in 2011 after it got stuck in Martian sand.
