Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
A robot named Perseverance is on Mars. It drives on the red ground. It has a new record.
Perseverance has now driven 28.10 miles. That is 45.22 kilometers. No robot has ever driven so far on another world.
The old record was held by a rover named Opportunity. It drove 28.06 miles. Opportunity took almost 15 years. Perseverance took about five and a half years.
Perseverance is not finished. It is driving to a new place called Idubi.
- rover
- A robot car that explores another world.
- record
- The best result ever.
- Mars
- The red planet.
- drive
- To move in a car.
- mile
- A measure of distance.
- robot
- A machine that does jobs.
- ground
- The surface you walk or drive on.
- explore
- To travel to learn about a place.
Level 2 - Elementary
NASA's Perseverance rover has set a new record for the longest total distance driven on another world. On October 11, its odometer passed 28.10 miles, or 45.22 kilometers. The old record of 28.06 miles belonged to the Opportunity rover.
Opportunity needed nearly 15 years on Mars to reach its distance, from 2004 to 2018. Perseverance reached it in about five and a half years. The rover also passed the totals of two Moon missions: the Apollo 17 astronauts drove 22.2 miles in 1972, and the Soviet rover Lunokhod 2 drove 24.2 miles in 1973.
The first plan was much smaller. The mission was only expected to drive about 12.4 miles. Now the rover is heading toward a place called Idubi, west of the rim of Jezero Crater.
Scientists say Idubi may have some of the oldest rock ever studied in the solar system. They hope to learn about the ancient history of Mars.
- odometer
- A tool that counts how far a vehicle has traveled.
- distance
- How far it is from one place to another.
- astronaut
- A person who travels in space.
- crater
- A large round hole made by an impact.
- rim
- The outer edge.
- ancient
- Very, very old.
- expect
- To think something will happen.
- solar system
- The Sun and everything that goes around it.
Level 3 - Intermediate
NASA's Perseverance rover has taken the title for the longest distance driven on another world. On October 11, its odometer reached 28.10 miles, or 45.22 kilometers, edging past the 28.06 miles recorded by Opportunity, which roamed Mars from 2004 to 2018. The new holder needed only about five and a half years to do what its predecessor took nearly fifteen to achieve.
The rover also overtook the distances covered on the Moon, passing the 22.2 miles driven by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972 and the 24.2 miles traveled by the Soviet rover Lunokhod 2 in 1973.
The achievement is striking given how modest the original ambition was. According to project manager Steven Lee, the baseline mission called for no more than 12.4 miles of driving. Engineers have since kept the rover going well beyond that, and an earlier estimate suggested it could eventually cover as much as 62 miles.
Perseverance is now headed for Idubi, a site off the western rim of Jezero Crater where it will investigate what may be some of the oldest terrain ever explored in the solar system. For mission scientists, the odometer is a by-product; the real prize is rock that could record the early history of Mars.
- odometer
- An instrument that records distance traveled.
- edging past
- Passing by a very small margin.
- predecessor
- The one that came before.
- baseline
- The minimum or starting plan.
- ambition
- A strong wish to achieve something.
- terrain
- A stretch of land and its features.
- by-product
- A secondary result of the main activity.
- overtook
- Passed something moving ahead.
Level 4 - Advanced
NASA's Perseverance rover has wrested the off-world driving record from its illustrious forerunner. On October 11, its odometer ticked past 28.10 miles, or 45.22 kilometers, nudging ahead of the 28.06 miles Opportunity logged between 2004 and 2018. The newcomer needed barely five and a half years, whereas Opportunity took nearly fifteen.
The rover has also eclipsed the lunar benchmarks, surpassing the 22.2 miles covered by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972 and the 24.2 miles of the Soviet Lunokhod 2 in 1973. Such comparisons are crude, since terrain, mission design and risk tolerance differ enormously, but they capture how far the vehicle has outrun expectations.
Those expectations were modest. Project manager Steven Lee has noted that the original mission called for no more than 12.4 miles of driving, and an earlier projection that the rover might eventually cover 62 miles once looked wildly optimistic. Longevity, careful route planning and increasing autonomy have turned a baseline into a footnote.
The odometer is not the point, of course. Perseverance is now trundling toward Idubi, a site off the western rim of Jezero Crater, to examine terrain that may rank among the most ancient ever visited in the solar system. If its rocks keep their secrets legibly, the rover will have repaid the distance many times over.
- wrested
- Took away by force or effort.
- illustrious
- Famous and admired for achievements.
- forerunner
- An earlier example of something.
- eclipsed
- Surpassed or made seem less important.
- benchmark
- A standard against which others are measured.
- longevity
- Long life or long duration.
- trundling
- Moving slowly and heavily.
- legibly
- In a way that can be read or understood.
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