{"id":893914,"date":"2026-10-25T08:14:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T08:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893914\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T08:14:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T08:14:20","slug":"nasas-perseverance-just-broke-the-off-world-driving-record-while-mostly-steering-itself-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893914\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s Perseverance Just Broke The Off-World Driving Record, While Mostly Steering Itself : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we look up at Mars, many millions of miles away, it’s inspiring to think that someone may be looking back at us<\/a> \u2013 not any heat-ray-equipped aliens<\/a>, thankfully, but one of humanity’s greatest accomplishments: NASA’s Perseverance rover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In July of 2020, the affectionately nicknamed Percy left Earth forever in a bright flash of hope during some of modern history’s darkest days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It, and we, have come a long way since then. <\/p>\n

\"\"Earth (our “pale blue dot”) playing peek-a-boo behind Mars’ moon Phobos, as observed by Perseverance on July 2, 2026. (NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU\/MSSS\/SSI<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In fact, Perseverance has recently achieved something completely unique<\/a>: it has traveled farther across the surface of another world than any previous entity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As its interplanetary odometer ticked off 45.22 kilometers (28.10 miles) on October 11, it graciously surpassed the record set by its older sibling Opportunity<\/a>, which traversed 45.16 kilometers of dusty, red, rocky Martian expanse from 2004 to 2018. <\/p>\n

Perseverance is a product of its predecessors. It has covered more than 90 percent of its record-breaking distance through its own wits, using its AutoNav system to scan and safely scale the wild terrain between waypoints set by scientists on Earth. <\/p>\n

This feat was made possible by the twin rovers Opportunity and Spirit<\/a>, which completed around 5 percent of their distance using the earliest AutoNav system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A comparison of driving distances across various vehicles on the Moon and Mars. (NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Perseverance’s most prototypical predecessor, and the first rover on Mars, was a dog-sized explorer named Sojourner<\/a>, which landed in 1997 and covered around 100 meters. <\/p>\n

And while Sojourner took 20 measurement points of the path ahead of it, Perseverance processes 200,000 with each glance, JPL scientists point out<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It can do this at or near its top speed, “thinking while driving<\/a>” to cover as much as a blistering 412 meters (1,351 feet) in a single sol<\/a>, or Martian day, which is about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day.<\/p>\n

Perseverance has also provided a real ‘Wright Brothers moment’ with its Ingenuity Mars Helicopter<\/a>, the first controlled aircraft flown on another planet.<\/p>\n

Instead of performing five test flights in 30 days, it shattered everyone’s hopes. In a good way, because it made 72 flights across three years, covering 17 kilometers and lifting itself nearly 24 meters in Mars’ whisper-thin atmosphere. <\/p>\n

\"YouTube frameborder=”0\u2033 allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen><\/p>\n

Perseverance’s current objective is skirting Jezero Crater<\/a>, so it’s in the Lac de Charmes region, which may one day be the wine-growing part of Mars. <\/p>\n

It’s exploring some of the oldest rocks we’ve ever laid eyes, lasers, or robotic arms upon \u2013 “probably older than 4 billion years,” says<\/a> Ken Farley, professor of geochemistry at Caltech and former Perseverance project scientist.<\/p>\n

“There are few rocks on Earth older than 4 billion years. So we are in an area that is very deep in the history of the solar system.”<\/p>\n

On Earth, most rocks of such an ancient age have been disintegrated by erosion or recycled by plate tectonics. Yet some remain, and may hold traces of early life<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Of course, this may be the ultimate goal for Perseverance. And it has found what may be the best evidence for extraterrestrial biology yet, trapped within the leopard-spot speckled rock called Cheyava Falls<\/a>, in an ancient asteroid-gouged basin that held water several billion years ago. <\/p>\n

Perseverance is now on the western rim of Jezero Crater in Lac de Charmes, on its way to check out Idubi, which may have been a hydrothermal system, possibly similar to those thought to have helped life arise on Earth.<\/p>\n

Rainbow Falls is another revealing target: a chunk of Mars ripped out of the ground by the impact that created Jezero Crater.<\/p>\n

\"\"A snapshot for the ages: an image taken on October 11, 2026, when Perseverance covered 91 meters to surpass its sibling’s record. (NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Perseverance therefore presents a contrast. Searching for life signs from faraway exoplanets is essential, but rife with challenges, as shown by the highly disputed ‘biosignature’ from K2-18b<\/a>, or the more locally famous but equally fickle phosphine from Venus<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As Farley suggests<\/a>, “the place that will give the richest information is the one you can bring samples from.”<\/p>\n

A return mission is the obvious next step, though NASA’s Mars Sample Return program lost its funding earlier this year, leaving the timing of any retrieval uncertain. <\/p>\n

Since Mars was a wet planet when life evolved on Earth, collected samples can help answer the most profound existential question \u2013 the evidence is ‘bagged’ and waiting just down our cosmic street. <\/p>\n

Such a mission would also inform future efforts to convey humans to the red planet and back, safe and sound, sacrificing only their squat and bench press numbers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Like a proud mother, Perseverance snaps a selfie while looking at Ingenuity. (NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Finally, if anyone feels wistful for Percy spending cold nights alone on a faraway world, consider that our emissary has seen stunning sunsets<\/a>, glimpsed green-glowing auroras<\/a>, and, perhaps, been the first to see signs of another lineage of life in the Solar System<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Not a bad haul, and a privilege passed to us. <\/p>\n

This article was fact-checked by Rebecca Dyer<\/a> and edited by Rebecca Dyer<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When we look up at Mars, many millions of miles away, it’s inspiring to think that someone may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1352,79],"class_list":["post-893914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-msft-content","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}