The key facts

  • Perseverance traveled 45.22 km on Mars, surpassing Opportunity's record (45.16 km, 2004–2018)
  • The rover has been operating in Jezero Crater since February 2021, collecting soil samples
  • According to Steven Lee, the rover could operate into the 2030s and beyond

A new record for traversing the surface of another planet

NASA reported that the Perseverance rover had traveled 45.22 km across the surface of Mars as of October 11, 2026, setting a new record for the total distance traveled on the surface of another planet. The previous achievement belonged to the Opportunity rover, which covered 45.16 km from 2004 to 2018.

Perseverance outpaced its predecessors and the lunar rovers

According to NASA, in terms of distance traveled, Perseverance has overtaken the Curiosity rover (on Mars since 2012, with 38.15 km traveled), the Spirit and Sojourner rovers, the Soviet Lunokhod-1 and Lunokhod-2, the lunar rovers of the Apollo 15, Apollo 16, and Apollo 17 missions, as well as the Chinese Yutu and Yutu-2 rovers.

Mission and condition of the vehicle

The six-wheeled Perseverance was launched on July 30, 2020, and landed in Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021, where, scientists believe, a lake fed by rivers existed more than 3.5 billion years ago. The mission's goal is to search for traces of ancient microbial life: the rover is collecting samples of Martian rocks and soil for subsequent delivery to Earth. Steven Lee, project manager for Perseverance and Curiosity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stated that the vehicle is in excellent technical condition and could operate on Mars into the 2030s or longer.

NASA