NASA's Perseverance rover has now driven farther across the surface of another world than any vehicle in history. On Oct. 11, its odometer reached 28.10 miles (45.22 kilometers), edging past the 28.06-mile (45.16-kilometer) mark set by the Opportunity rover, according to a NASA mission update posted Oct. 12.

The record came on the 2,006th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. A 299.6-foot (91.31-meter) drive that day pushed the six-wheeled rover over the line as it rolled toward an area beyond the western rim of Jezero Crater that the science team calls Idubi.

The bigger story may be what comes next. Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California told Space.com that the rover, originally designed for roughly 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) of driving, looks capable of reaching about 100 kilometers (62 miles) in total. That would more than double today's record, though it remains a team projection rather than a guaranteed outcome.

A Record Opportunity Needed Almost 15 Years to Set

Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 and kept rolling until 2018, logging 5,111 sols and completing the first marathon-length drive on another planet in 2015. Perseverance, which touched down in Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, covered the same ground in about five and a half years.

Opportunity first claimed the off-world title in July 2014, when it passed the roughly 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) that the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover drove on the Moon in 1973. "Opportunity has driven farther than any other wheeled vehicle on another world," then-project manager John Callas said in a 2014 JPL announcement.

Perseverance passed two lunar benchmarks on its way to the new mark. NASA said the rover rolled beyond the 22.2 miles (35.7 kilometers) that Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt drove in 1972, and then beyond Lunokhod 2's total.

NASA's Curiosity rover, working in Gale Crater since 2012, is the only other vehicle on the chart that is still moving. It has logged more than 23.65 miles (38.07 kilometers), according to NASA.

Self-Driving Software Did Most of the Work

NASA credits much of the record to AutoNav, the rover's autonomous navigation system. While rolling, Perseverance photographs the terrain, builds a 3D hazard map, and chooses its own path between waypoints that human planners select on Earth.

The jump from earlier rovers is large. NASA said Perseverance has driven more than 90% of its total distance using AutoNav, compared with about 5% for the first Martian version flown on Spirit and Opportunity. The rover can cover as much as 1,351 feet (412 meters) in a single sol, and where the 1997 Sojourner rover judged the ground ahead using 20 measurement points, Perseverance processes 600,000 with every look.

"We expect Perseverance to keep adding to this record for many years to come," said Steven Lee, project manager for the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers at JPL. Lee noted that the original mission called for no more than 12.4 miles of driving and that all of the rover's mobility systems remain fully operational.

Mark Maimone, deputy team chief for robotic operations on Perseverance, said the team's newest software teaches the rover to steer less, roll more, and check its own position against orbital maps in the middle of a drive. The next hurdle is glare. Drives toward the Sun currently end by mid-afternoon because sunlight creates artifacts in the navigation cameras, and Maimone said solving that would give future rovers a longer working day.

The Case for 100 Kilometers, and Its Limits

Maimone was more specific in his interview with Space.com. The team believes the rover is "looking really good to go for up to 100 kilometers total," he said. Vivian Sun, the mission's deputy project scientist, told the outlet that the rover's original capabilities, especially its science instruments, remain largely intact.

Readers should treat the 100-kilometer figure as an engineering expectation, not a scheduled milestone. NASA said it rests on the rover's current health and on favorable results from extended ground-life testing of its hardware. Mars is hard on wheels — Curiosity has kept climbing on worn wheels for 14 years, a reminder that mobility can degrade gradually even when the rest of a rover keeps working.

Mission funding also sets the horizon. NASA recently approved Perseverance's first mission extension, which began in October and carries exploration of the crater rim through roughly the end of 2028. Driving beyond that period would depend on future NASA decisions.

Distance is not the goal in itself — NASA describes the record as a bonus, because longer drives put more kinds of rock within reach. Perseverance has collected 29 rock and regolith samples spanning the crater floor, an ancient river delta and the crater rim. One of them, taken from a rock nicknamed Cheyava Falls, contains what NASA calls a potential biosignature, a clue that requires more study and is not proof of past life.

Rainbow Falls and the Hunt for Ancient Water

For now, Perseverance is crossing a region nicknamed Lac de Charmes, where NASA says it is studying what may be some of the oldest terrain explored anywhere in the solar system. Rocks this old have largely been erased on Earth by erosion and plate tectonics. At Idubi, the team hopes to find traces of ancient hydrothermal systems, places where heated water once moved through rock.

After that, the rover will head south along the rim toward Rainbow Falls, a 328-foot-wide (100-meter-wide) block of ancient crust uplifted by the impact that formed Jezero. Sun told Space.com the area is thought to contain kaolinite, a clay mineral that forms when water interacts with rock, which makes it a priority in the search for conditions that could once have supported life.

Anyone who wants to follow the drive can track the rover on NASA's Perseverance mission page, which links to an updated location map and raw images from the rover's cameras. Totals change after every drive, so the 45.22-kilometer figure marks the Oct. 11 milestone rather than the rover's current odometer.

The bottom line is straightforward. Perseverance now holds the off-world driving record, its engineers expect it to stretch that lead considerably if its hardware holds up, and the real payoff will be measured in the rocks it reaches along the way. The next major science stop is Rainbow Falls, and NASA's mission blog is the place to watch for updates.

What Readers Want to Know

How far has Perseverance driven on Mars?

As of Oct. 11, Perseverance's odometer read 28.10 miles (45.22 kilometers), according to NASA. The total grows with every drive, so check NASA's mission page for the latest figure.

Which rover held the record before Perseverance?

NASA's Opportunity rover held it with 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers), driven between 2004 and 2018. Opportunity had taken the title in 2014 from the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2, which drove about 24.2 miles on the moon.

Why can Perseverance drive so much faster than older rovers?

Its AutoNav system maps hazards and picks a path while the rover is moving. NASA said more than 90% of Perseverance's driving has used AutoNav, compared with about 5% for Spirit and Opportunity.

Will Perseverance really reach 100 kilometers?

That is the mission team's projection, not a guarantee. It depends on the rover's wheels and other hardware staying healthy and on NASA continuing to fund the mission beyond the current extension, which runs through roughly the end of 2028.

Where is Perseverance going next?

The rover is exploring an area called Lac de Charmes on its way to a site called Idubi, where scientists hope to find traces of ancient hot-water systems. After that, it will travel south toward Rainbow Falls, a block of ancient crust that may contain water-formed clay minerals.