Tracks Along the Longest Drive on Another World.
NASA's Perseverance rover set a record for the farthest distance driven on another celestial body, reaching 45.22 kilometers on Mars, according to a mission blog post by a JPL engineer.
NASA's Perseverance rover passed a distance milestone on Mars on Oct. 11, 2026 (Sol 2006). Its odometer read 45.22 kilometers (28.10 miles), a new record for the farthest distance driven on another celestial body, wrote Vandi Verma, chief engineer for robotic operations at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The rover's engineering twin on Earth received a plaque from Guinness World Records to mark the achievement.
About two months earlier, on Sol 1947, the rover was roughly 200 meters from the record. Verma noted that a single drive using Autonomous Navigation (AutoNav) could have covered that distance easily. Instead, Perseverance stopped in a scientifically interesting area and made short drives to abrade rocks and perform proximity science on ancient rock outcrops. Once the rover was ready to move on to a new site, it went past the record.
Verma said dense boulder fields and steep slopes pushed the team to revisit its driving guidelines. After thousands of simulations, the team raised the rover's tilt limit to 24 degrees and reduced the clearance required under its belly pan to 20 centimeters (about 7.9 inches). The team also updated the braking software to avoid rock hazards, nearly doubled the steer motor current limits, and added "dynamic slip tables" to the flight software to model expected slip. It also used cross-slope driving to anchor the wheels better on exposed bedrock.
Another change is an autonomous capability called onboard Global Localization. It uses the high-speed commercial processor inside the Ingenuity Helicopter Base Station to compare ground and orbital images. That lets the rover work out its position in global coordinates at the end of a drive, which Verma compared to having GPS on a world without it. The capability allows longer drives without human intervention.
The coprocessor is not hardened against radiation, which can cause "transient bit flips" in the memory the software needs. Verma wrote that the team developed an effective software-based approach to radiation hardening. Looking ahead, the team is exploring a generative tool to help propose solutions for steering AutoNav along the many legs of a strategic path, as Perseverance continues to climb the crater rim.
At a Glance
- Perseverance's odometer reached 45.22 kilometers (28.10 miles) on Sol 2006, Oct. 11, 2026.
- The team raised the rover's tilt limit to 24 degrees after thousands of simulations.
- Required clearance under the belly pan was reduced to 20 centimeters (about 7.9 inches).
- Steer motor current limits were nearly doubled as part of the driving updates.
- Guinness World Records gave a plaque to the rover's engineering twin on Earth.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.