Designed to only travel one kilometre over its entire operational lifespan, NASA’s Opportunity Mars Rover has exceeded that by quite a margin and in doing so set a new record.
NASA reports Opportunity has set a new off-Earth roving distance record after clocking up 40 kilometers of driving. The previous record was held by the Soviet Union’s Lunokhod 2 rover; set way back in 1973. The record for a manned vehicle is 35.74 kilometres, set in the Apollo 17 Lunar Rover in 1972.
“Opportunity has driven farther than any other wheeled vehicle on another world,” said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “This is so remarkable considering Opportunity was intended to drive about one kilometer and was never designed for distance.”
The mission has probably provided NASA the best bang for buck of any. Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, were designed to only last a few months – and Opportunity has now been working on Mars since 2004.
If the rover can make it to 42.2 kilometers; it will reach another major investigation site mission scientists have dubbed “Marathon Valley.”
Opportunity is equipped with with solar panels able to generate around 140 watts of power for up to four hours each Martian day under ideal conditions. Energy harvested is stored in two lithium ion batteries weighing just over 7kg each.
Spirit fell silent on March 22, 2010 and NASA concluded recovery efforts on May 25, 2011.
Back in April, Opportunity was provided a new lease on life when Martian winds cleaned its heavily dust coated solar panels, providing it with a cleaner solar array than in any Martian winter since it first arrived.
Opportunity has provided a wealth of information regarding Mars that scientists will spend many years examining.
