NASA’s Perseverance rover sets new record before hitting a one-year milestone on Mars

• NASA’s Perseverance rover set a new record for the longest drive on a single solar day on Mars.
• Perseverance beat the 17-year-old record set by Opportunity.
• The rover also surpassed its longest drive on AutoNav.

NASA’s Perseverance rover will mark its first year anniversary on Mars next week but before that, it has already achieved a new milestone in its journey so far. Perseverance has set the record for the longest drive on a single solar day on Mars breaking the 17-year-old record set by Opportunity.

Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18 last year for a new mission to explore the red planet. The rover will also collect rocks and send them back to Earth for further exploration. NASA shared the rover’s recent achievement on Twitter saying that it actually broke two records. The first is the longest single-day drive on Mars. Perseverance drove 245.7 meters on the Martian surface on a single solar day in comparison to Opportunity who has been holding this record of driving 228 meters on Mars.

The second record Perseverance broke is surpassing its longest AutoNav drive. This is one function that NASA integrated into a rover for the first time. When in AutoNav, the rover can drive autonomously by navigating through 3D maps and software that helps it avoid obstacles on the way. This feature also makes Perseverance faster as compared to when it’s being remotely controlled by a human.

Perseverance is NASA’s most advanced Mars rover and it has made some big achievements during its journey so far. The rover has collected six samples of Martian rock and atmosphere that can be sent to Earth for further research. It has collected over 50GB of science data and already sent more than 100,000 images. As with NASA’s rovers, this one too snapped two selfies on the Martian surface.

The rover’s primary mission is to search for evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars. As for its next major investigation, Perseverance will explore the delta that formed in the Jezero crater billions of years ago. Jezero is where Perseverance landed when it came to Mars.

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