Even though there wasn’t any tape at the finish line, NASA is celebrating a victory in every sense of the world. The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has managed to successfully complete its first marathon on the Red Planet this Tuesday after travelling 26,219 miles (42,195 kms). It took the rover 11 years & 2 months to do this.
As per John Callas, the project manager for Opportunity, this is the 1st time that a human enterprise has managed to exceed the distance covered in a marathon while on a different world.
This rover managed to recently pass the marathon mark when it took a 153 feet drive (46.5 meter) last year. This made it the long distance champion among all off-Earth vehicles. It thrashed the record which was earlier set by the Lunokhod 2 rover which the Soviet Union had sent to the moon.
As per Steve Squyres at the Cornell University, these missions aren’t about setting records for distance though. It’s more about scientific discoveries on Mars & inspiring explorers to achieve more in the future.
The original 3 month mission of Opportunity in 2004 showed evidence of liquid water flowing on the planet’s surface and soaking the ground. The rover operated far beyond expectation during its lifespan and the rim of the Endeavour crater was chosen as the long-term destination of the rover. Endeavour’s rim has been examined since 2011 and has provided information on ancient wet conditions which aren’t so acidic and are favorable for microbial life as compared with the environment which was found earlier during the mission.
The Mars rover project is managed by JPL at NASA in Washington. Apart from Opportunity, Curiosity (a newer Mars rover) along with 3 NASA Mars orbiters are all part of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA. The objective of this program is to understand and characterize Mars as a dynamic system including its past & present environment, geology, climate cycles & biological potential. NASA is also working on human spaceflight capabilities to travel to Mars side by side.
