Until now the Russian vehicle Lunokhod 2 was in possession of this astronomical mark, with 39 kilometers traveled on the surface of the Moon in 1973. Now Opportunity, the Mars exploration robot has just beaten it.
Since 2004, Opportunity has sent signals, collected samples and carried out various analyzes of the terrain and geology of Mars. And to get all this information, the robot has had to travel dozens of kilometers on its irregular surface. In fact, it has already traveled more than 25 miles, that is, more than 40 kilometers, which has raised it to the first place in the category of distance traveled on another planet. This mark was until now in the hands of the Soviet Lunojod2, who traveled 39 kilometers on the lunar surface back in 1973. The ranking of the top ten distances traveled on solid ground outside the Earth is completed by the following vehicles:
3) Apollo 17 lunar rover in 1972 on the Moon, with 35.7 kilometers traveled
4) Apollo 15 lunar rover on the Moon in 1971, with 27.8 kilometers.
5) Apollo 16 lunar rover also in 1972 and also on the Moon, traveling 27.1 kilometers
6) The Russian Lunokhod 1 traveled between 1970 and 1971 on the lunar surface a total of 10.5 kilometers
7) Curiosity, NASA’s Martian exploration robot has traveled 8.6 kilometers over the red planet since 2012
8) The Spirit vehicle also traveled 7.7 kilometers on Mars between 2004 and 2010
9) The Sojourner traveled on Mars in 1997 just 0.1 kilometers.
10) The Chinese vehicle Yutu traveled, in what was a great fiasco, just 0.1 kilometers last year.
As John Callas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has explained, ” Opportunity has taken it further than any other wheeled vehicle in another world “, further pointing out that it is something really remarkable “considering Opportunity was destined to go around of a kilometer and never for this distance ”. In addition, according to the person in charge, ” what is really important is not the number of miles that the rover has accumulated, but the exploration and findings that we have achieved in that distance .”
The best of all about this record achieved by Opportunity is that it continues to be fully operational on the Martian surface and no one doubts that it will exceed the distance of a marathon: 42.195 kilometers.
