Perseverance Becomes Farthest-Traveling Vehicle on Another World

On October 11, 2026, NASA’s Perseverance rover reached 45.22 km (28.1 miles), edging past the 45.16 km (28.06 miles) logged by NASA’s Opportunity rover, which explored Mars from 2004 to 2018. Perseverance crossed the line on the 2,006th Martian day, or sol, of its mission, with a 91.31-m (299.6-foot) drive. It covered the distance in about five and a half years, while Opportunity needed nearly 15.

“Perseverance’s record caps nearly three decades of NASA rover operations on Mars, each mission driving farther and more capably than the last,” members of the Perseverance team said in a statement.

“The microwave-oven-size Sojourner rover covered about 100 m (330 feet) during its 83-sol mission in 1997.”

“The golf-cart-size twins Spirit and Opportunity arrived in 2004 with 90-sol prime missions. Spirit logged 7.7 km (4.8 miles) before succumbing to the Martian winter in 2010.”

“Opportunity kept rolling for 5,111 sols, completing the first extraterrestrial marathon in 2015 and setting the record Perseverance has now surpassed.”

“Curiosity, which landed in Gale crater in 2012 and remains hard at work, has logged more than 38.07 km (23.65 miles).”

“The extraterrestrial off-road driving record isn’t limited to Mars,” they added.

“Lunar driving records were broken earlier in the journey. Perseverance rolled past both the 35.7 km (22.2 miles) covered by Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt in 1972 and the 39 km (24.2 miles) driven by the Soviet Union’s Lunokhod 2 rover in 1973.”

Perseverance is currently heading toward a site called Idubi, crossing a region west of Jezero crater’s rim known as Lac de Charmes.

The terrain there may be among the oldest ever examined in the Solar System.

The researchers hope Idubi will reveal traces of ancient hydrothermal systems.

“It is an honor to be working on Perseverance at a moment when the technology has evolved to the point that drives like these are routine,” said Steven Lee, project manager of the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“The original mission called for no more than 20 km (12.4 miles) of driving.”

“We’ve blown well past that, and with all mobility systems fully operational and favorable extended-ground-life test results, we expect Perseverance to keep adding to this record for many years to come.”

NASA recently approved Perseverance’s first mission extension, which began this month and runs through about the end of 2028.

After Idubi, the rover will continue along the crater rim and head south toward Rainbow Falls, a 100-m-wide block of ancient crust uplifted by the impact that created Jezero.