Summary
NASA’s Perseverance rover reached 45.22 kilometres driven on Mars on 11 October 2026, passing the record held by Opportunity. JPL credits the rover’s autonomous navigation with helping it cover the distance while exploring Jezero Crater.
NASA’s Perseverance rover has driven farther on the surface of another world than any vehicle before it. On 11 October 2026, its odometer reached 28.10 miles (45.22 kilometres), edging past the 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometres) logged by NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars. JPL reported the milestone on 12 October.
Perseverance reached the mark on its 2,006th Martian day, or sol, after five and a half years of driving. Opportunity took nearly 15 years to set the previous record. A 299.6-foot (91.31-metre) drive that day carried Perseverance past the mark.
How autonomous navigation supports longer drives
JPL credits much of Perseverance’s distance to AutoNav, its autonomous navigation system. The rover takes images as it moves, uses them to build a three-dimensional map of hazards, and plans a route between waypoints chosen by rover planners on Earth. This allows it to assess terrain and adjust its path during a drive, rather than relying on a route mapped in detail in advance.
Perseverance has used AutoNav for more than 90% of its total distance, compared with about 5% for the first Mars rover system on Opportunity and its twin, Spirit. JPL says Perseverance can assess 600,000 terrain measurement points with each look; Sojourner, NASA’s first Mars rover, used 20. The newer rover can cover as much as 1,351 feet (412 metres) in a sol.
The record is also part of a longer progression in Mars rover mobility. Sojourner drove about 330 feet (100 metres) during its 83-sol mission in 1997. Spirit covered 4.8 miles (7.7 kilometres), while Opportunity drove 28.06 miles over 5,111 sols. Curiosity, which landed in Gale Crater in 2012 and remains operational, has logged more than 23.65 miles (38.07 kilometres).
More terrain within reach
Perseverance’s route has taken it from Jezero Crater’s ancient lakebed, up a fossilized river system, and toward the crater rim. The rover is now travelling through a region called Lac de Charmes toward an area named Idubi. JPL says the science team hopes to find traces of ancient hydrothermal systems at Idubi; these are exploration goals, not confirmed findings.
The rover has collected 29 rock and regolith samples across the crater floor, the river delta and the crater rim. JPL says its greater range puts more geologic variety within reach and can help the team examine more outcrops and study Mars’s history through its rocks. The rover has also explored impact-generated rocks about 4 billion years old.
NASA approved Perseverance’s first mission extension, which began in October and is expected to continue the crater-rim exploration through roughly the end of 2028. The team plans to head south toward Rainbow Falls, a 328-foot-wide (100-metre-wide) block of ancient crust uplifted by the impact that formed Jezero Crater.