NASA’s Perseverance breaks 28-mile Mars driving record using autonomous navigation

What happened

NASA’s Perseverance breaks 28-mile Mars driving record using autonomous navigation, according to Interesting Engineering. NASA’s Perseverance rover has set a new record for the longest distance driven by any vehicle on another world, reaching 28.10 miles (45.22 kilometers) on Mars and surpassing a record held by Opportunity for years. The six-wheeled rover (a vehicle that drives across another world’s surface) crossed the milestone on October 11, during the 2,006th Martian day of its mission. NASA is a public and space exploration company founded in 1958.

It overtook Opportunity’s 28.06-mile (45.16-kilometer) record, covering the distance in about five and a half years compared with Opportunity’s nearly 15 years. Much of Perseverance’s progress comes from its autonomous navigation system, AutoNav, which allows the rover to identify obstacles and plan routes while moving.

NASA says the system has guided more than 90% of its total driving distance, compared with about 5% for Opportunity’s early autonomous navigation system. Perseverance can travel up to 1,351 feet (412 meters) in a single Martian day.