NASA breaks two records on the surface of Mars with its newest rover

NASA has announced that it has broken two records on the surface of Mars with its newest Mars rover called Perseverance.

According to NASA JPL, the Perseverance rover has recently broken two records, the first record being the longest drive in a single solar day, and the second being the longest AutoNav drive. The space agency announced that Perseverance has broken the previous record of 748 feet set by the Opportunity rover in March 2005. Now, Perseverance holds the record by recently completing a drive of 803 feet.

NASA also announced that Perseverance has broken its own record for the longest AutoNav drive, which is the rover's self-driving function. As you can probably imagine, Perseverance's AutoNav function allows for the rover to drive across the Martian surface autonomously using 3D maps and advanced software that maps any potential obstacles around Perseverance. With autonomous driving, Perseverance can move 393 feet in an hour.

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For context, NASA's Curiosity rover has a maximum travel speed of 65 feet per hour and has no automatic navigation system.

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