Mars Rover Sets Off-World Driving Record   
       
   July 28, 2014: NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, which landed on the Red Planet   
   in 2004, now holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 25   
   miles (40 kilometers) of driving, and is not far from completing the first   
   extraterrestrial marathon. The previous record was held by the Soviet Union's   
   Lunokhod 2 rover.   
       
   "Opportunity has driven farther than any other wheeled vehicle on another   
   world," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas, of NASA's Jet   
   Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "This is so remarkable   
   considering Opportunity was intended to drive about one kilometer and was   
   never designed for distance."   
       
   http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/14-202a_0.jpg   
       
   NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, working on Mars since January 2004,   
   passed 25 miles of total driving on July 27, 2014. The gold line on this map   
   shows Opportunity's route from the landing site inside Eagle Crater (upper   
   left) to its location after the July 27 (Sol 3735) drive. Image Credit:   
   NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NMMNHS   
       
   A drive of 157 feet (48 meters) on July 27 put Opportunity's total odometry at   
   25.01 miles (40.25 kilometers).This month's driving brought the rover   
   southward along the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover had driven more   
   than 20 miles (32 kilometers) before arriving at Endeavour Crater in 2011,   
   where it has examined outcrops on the crater's rim containing clay and   
   sulfate-bearing minerals. The sites are yielding evidence of ancient   
   environments with less acidic water than those examined at Opportunity's   
   landing site.   
       
   If the rover can continue to operate the distance of a marathon -- 26.2 miles   
   (about 42.2 kilometers) -- it will approach the next major investigation site   
   mission scientists have dubbed "Marathon Valley." Observations from spacecraft   
   orbiting Mars suggest several clay minerals are exposed close together at this   
   valley site, surrounded by steep slopes where the relationships among   
   different layers may be evident.   
       
   The Russian Lunokhod 2 rover, a successor to the first Lunokhod mission in   
   1970, landed on Earth's moon on Jan. 15, 1973, where it drove about 24.2 miles   
   (39 kilometers) in less than five months, according to calculations recently   
   made using images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) cameras that   
   reveal Lunokhod 2's tracks.   
       
   http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/14-202b.jpg   
       
   This chart provides a comparison of the distances driven by various wheeled   
   vehicles on the surface of Mars and Earth's moon. Click to view the complete   
   chart.   
       
   Irina Karachevtseva at Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography's   
   Extraterrestrial Laboratory in Russia, Brad Jolliff of Washington University   
   in St. Louis, Tim Parker of JPL, and others, collaborated to verify the   
   map-based methods for computing distances are comparable for Lunokhod-2 and   
   Opportunity.   
       
   "The Lunokhod missions still stand as two signature accomplishments of what I   
   think of as the first golden age of planetary exploration, the 1960s and   
   '70s," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and   
   principal investigator for NASA's twin Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit.   
   "We're in a second golden age now, and what we've tried to do on Mars with   
   Spirit and Opportunity has been very much inspired by the accomplishments of   
   the Lunokhod team on the moon so many years ago. It has been a real honor to   
   follow in their historical wheel tracks."   
       
   As Opportunity neared the mileage record earlier this year, the rover team   
   chose the name Lunokhod 2 for a crater about 20 feet (6 meters) in diameter on   
   the outer slope of Endeavour's rim on Mars.   
       
   As impressive as the distance record is, concludes Callas, even more   
   impressive is "how much exploration and discovery we have accomplished over   
   that distance." For more information about the many discoveries of NASA's Mars   
   rovers, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers   
       
   Credits:   
   Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit:   
   Science@NASA   
       
   More information   
       
   The Mars Exploration Rover Project is one element of NASA's ongoing and future   
   Mars missions preparing for a human mission to the planet in the 2030s. JPL   
   manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD), in   
   Washington. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland,   
   manages LRO for SMD.   
       
   An image of Lunokhod 2's tracks, as imaged by NASA's LRO, is available online   
   at: http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/774   
       
   The Mars rover home page at JPL is  http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov   
       
   Follow the Mars rover project on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/MarsRovers   
       
   On Facebook, visit: http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.99   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)