Nasa's Opportunity rover completes a marathon on Mars
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Nasa says the Opportunity rover has passed the marathon mark for driving on Mars.
The space agency said the car sized rover's odometer checked in at 26.2 miles — the distance of a marathon.
The official time? Eleven years and two months.
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A marathon on Mars: This map shows the rover's entire traverse from landing to that point.
Scientists and engineers will celebrate Opportunity's achievement by holding their own marathon relay at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission.
Last year, Opportunity broke the record for off-Earth distance traveled that was previously held by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 moon rover.
Opportunity and its twin Spirit landed on Mars in January 2004 for what was supposed to be a three-month mission.
Both uncovered geologic signs of ancient water.
Spirit's mission ended in 2011 not long after it got stuck in Martian sand.
'This is the first time any human enterprise has exceeded the distance of a marathon on the surface of another world,' said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
'A first time happens only once.'
The long-lived rover surpassed the marathon mark during a drive of 153 feet (46.5 meters).
The vehicle surpassed marathon distance of 26.219 miles (42.195 kilometers) with a drive completed on March 24, 2015, during the 3,968th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars
Some of the highlights along the route as NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove as far as a marathon race during the first 11 years and two months after its January 2004 landing in Eagle Crater.
This Jan. 6, 2015 panorama provided by NASA of a 'Marathon Valley' was taken by the NASA rover Opportunity.
'This mission isn't about setting distance records, of course; it's about making scientific discoveries on Mars and inspiring future explorers to achieve even more,' said Steve Squyres, Opportunity principal investigator at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
'Still, running a marathon on Mars feels pretty cool.'
OPPORTUNITY - THE 'EVERLASTING' ROVER
Opportunity's original three-month prime mission in 2004 yielded evidence of environments with liquid water soaking the ground and flowing on planet's surface.
As the rover continued to operate far beyond expectations for its lifespan, scientists chose the rim of Endeavour Crater as a long-term destination.
Since 2011, examinations of Endeavour's rim have provided information about ancient wet conditions less acidic, and more favourable for microbial life, than the environment that left clues found earlier in the mission.
Earlier this year an increasing frequency of computer resets has prompted the rover team to make plans to reformat the rover's flash memory.
The resets, including a dozen this month, interfere with the rover's planned science activities, even though recovery from each incident is completed within a day or two.
'Worn-out cells in the flash memory are the leading suspect in causing these resets,' said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, project manager for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project.
'The flash reformatting is a low-risk process, as critical sequences and flight software are stored elsewhere in other non-volatile memory on the rover.'
Flash memory retains data even when power is off.
It is the type used for storing photos and songs on smart phones or digital cameras, among many other uses.
Opportunity's original three-month prime mission in 2004 yielded evidence of environments with liquid water soaking the ground and flowing on planet's surface.
As the rover continued to operate far beyond expectations for its lifespan, scientists chose the rim of Endeavour Crater as a long-term destination.
Since 2011, examinations of Endeavour's rim have provided information about ancient wet conditions less acidic, and more favourable for microbial life, than the environment that left clues found earlier in the mission.
This map shows the southward path driven by Opportunity from late December 2014 until it passed marathon distance on March 24, 2015, during the 3,968th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars.
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