NASA rover set a record
NASA announced that the Perseverance Mars rover set a record for the longest distance covered off the Earth.
**NASA rover sets a record**
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that as of October 11, 2026, its Perseverance rover covered a distance of 45.22 km on the surface of Mars, setting a new record for the total distance traveled on the surface of another planet.
This result allowed the spacecraft to break the previous record of 45.16 km, set by NASA's Opportunity rover during its operation on Mars from 2004 to 2018.
According to NASA, in terms of distance covered, Perseverance also surpassed NASA's Curiosity rover (which has been on Mars since 2012 and has traveled 38.15 km to date), the Spirit and Sojourner rovers, the former Soviet Union's Lunokhod-1 and Lunokhod-2 spacecraft, NASA's Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17 lunar rovers, as well as China's Yutu and Yutu-2 lunar rovers.
The six-wheeled Perseverance rover was launched into space on July 30, 2020. On February 18, 2021, the spacecraft reached the surface of Mars and landed in Jezero Crater, where scientists believe a lake fed by rivers existed more than 3.5 billion years ago. The goal of the Perseverance mission is to find signs of ancient microbiological life. To this end, the rover is collecting samples of Martian rock and soil for subsequent return to Earth.
Steven Lee, Perseverance and Curiosity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Perseverance is in excellent technical condition and could operate on Mars into the 2030s or even longer.