spacetoday.net: Mars rover breaks distance record

Posted: Sat, May 18, 2013, 11:02 AM ET (1502 GMT)
Mars Exploration Rover (NASA/JPL)

A nine-year-old Mars rover has broken the NASA record for the longest distance driven on the surface of another world. NASA announced this week that the Opportunity Mars rover has now driven 35.76 kilometers, breaking the previous record of 35.744 kilometers set by the Apollo 17 lunar rover in 1972. Opportunity broke the record as it set out on a multi-week trek from the Cape York section of the rim of Endeavour Crater, where the rover had been working since mid-2011, to a point 2.2 kilometers away called Solander Point. The rover, which has been on the Martian surface since January 2004, remains in good condition. The record for the longest distance driven by any vehicle on another world belongs to the Soviet robotic rover Lunokhod 2, which drove 37 kilometers on the Moon in 1973.