Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: NASA on Thursday announced that its Opportunity Mars rover has covered a record distance of 26.219 miles journey on the Red Planet in just over 11 months.
Opportunity Mars rover - the first human-made vehicle to complete a marathon on another planet, completed the marathon during a drive of a 153-feet.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project landed twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity on Mars in early 2004 to begin missions planned to last only three months.
Spirit worked for six years, and Opportunity is still active.
Opportunity was given the long-term task of exploring the rim of the Endeavour Crater after its lifespan far exceeded scientists` expectations.
Last June, the robot surpassed the record for the most miles clocked by any man-made vehicle on any celestial body by beating the Soviet Union`s Lunokhod 2 rover, which landed on the moon in 1973.
Meanwhile the much larger Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, is equipped with sophisticated scientific instruments, which have shed light on the possible microbial life that may have once inhabited the Red Planet.
(With Agency inputs)
