NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover set a new record for the longest drive in a single Martian day, travelling 245.76 metres (806 feet) on the surface of Mars on February 4. The previous record was held by NASA’s Opportunity rover in 2005 (214 metres/702 feet). Perseverance broke a second record, surpassing its own longest AutoNav drive. NASA integrated this function into a rover for the first time. When in AutoNav, the rover drives autonomously by navigating through 3D maps and software that help it avoid obstacles. This feature makes Perseverance faster as compared to when it’s being remotely controlled by NASA personnel; it would only traverse about 200 metres a day which would lengthen the timeline of exploration. Perseverance landed on the red planet a year ago and is on a mission to seek out signs of ancient microbial life. It has collected six samples of Martian rock and atmosphere, over 50GB of science data and has sent back over 100,000 images. It has also snapped two selfies on the Martian surface!
Picture Credit : Google
