NASA's Perseverance rover has driven farther than any vehicle has on the surface of another world. On October 11, 2026, its odometer reached 28.10 miles (45.22 kilometers), passing the 28.06-mile (45.16-kilometer) record set by NASA's Opportunity rover.
The record drive
Perseverance hit the mark on the 2,006th Martian day, or sol, of its mission, with a 299.6-foot (91.31-meter) drive. NASA says it covered in five and a half years a distance that took Opportunity, which explored Mars from 2004 to 2018, almost 15.
The original mission called for no more than 12.4 miles of driving, according to Steven Lee, project manager for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The rover mostly drives itself
NASA credits Perseverance's autonomous navigation system, AutoNav. The rover photographs the terrain while rolling, builds a 3D map of hazards and plots a path between waypoints chosen by planners on Earth. The team calls it "thinking while driving."
- Perseverance has driven more than 90% of its total distance using AutoNav, compared with about 5% for Spirit and Opportunity.
- It can cover as much as 1,351 feet (412 meters) in a single sol.
- NASA's first Mars rover, Sojourner, assessed the path ahead with 20 measurement points. Perseverance processes 600,000 with every look.
How the rovers compare
- Sojourner (1997): about 330 feet (100 meters)
- Spirit (2004–2010): 4.8 miles (7.7 kilometers)
- Opportunity (2004–2018): 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers)
- Curiosity (2012–present): more than 23.65 miles (38.07 kilometers)
Perseverance had already passed the 22.2 miles driven by Apollo 17 astronauts on the Moon in 1972 and the 24.2 miles covered by the Soviet Lunokhod 2 rover in 1973.
Where it's headed
The rover is crossing a region off the western rim of Jezero Crater nicknamed "Lac de Charmes," toward an area called "Idubi," where the science team hopes to find traces of ancient hydrothermal systems. NASA says the terrain there may be some of the oldest ever explored in the solar system.
Perseverance has collected 29 rock and regolith samples so far. NASA recently approved the mission's first extension, which began in October and runs through roughly the end of 2028. The rover will later head south along the crater rim toward Rainbow Falls, a 328-foot-wide block of ancient crust.
