Mars rover Opportunity sets space driving distance record
Scientists hope vehicle can now reach ancient part of planet to test soil
The US space agency's Opportunity rover has rewritten a 41-year-old driving record that is out of this world. The decade-old Nasa Mars rover has crossed the 40km mark, surpassing the 39km record held by the Russian moon rover Lunokhod 2.
Not too shabby for a rover that landed on the red planet in 2004 with a 90-day mission and an odometer geared for a roughly 0.96km drive, said John Callas, the mission's project manager at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge, California.
"No one in their wildest dreams thought the rover would last this long," Callas said. "People made bets early on - 'Maybe we can get to the first Martian winter', 'Maybe we can get two years out of it' - but no one thought that it would last this long."
No one's betting against Opportunity now. It may be ageing, with an arthritic elbow and a somewhat disabled front wheel, but it has long outlived its twin rover, Spirit, and lasted roughly 40 times as long as it was supposed to.
The previous record holder for distance, the Lunokhod 2, was sent loping around the moon's surface by Russia in 1973. It covered 39km in less than five months - speedy compared with Opportunity's 10-plus years.
Opportunity's extra distance has allowed its handlers to make remarkable discoveries, because the robotic explorer has been able to venture far outside its landing site.