NASA’s Opportunity Rover Completes a Martian Marathon

 A self-portrait that was taken by the NASA rover Opportunity weeks before its tenth landing anniversary on Mars.

A self-portrait that was taken by the NASA rover Opportunity weeks before its tenth landing anniversary on Mars. NASA/AP

The Mars probe is the first human-made vehicle to travel 26.2 miles on a non-Earth planet.

Only 11 years and two months after it began, NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover has completed a marathon across the planet’s barren red desert. The rover made its final roll toward the 26.219-mile mark Tuesday morning, logging in a total of 26.221 miles (42.195 kilometers) on its odometer.

“It’s historic,” said John Callas, a NASA astronomer who manages the Mars Exploration Rover project, in an interview. “This is the first time any human enterprise has exceeded a marathon somewhere other than Earth.”

Opportunity was designed to drive a distance of only one kilometer. Its current record is 42 times longer than that. “It’s like having a car that’s supposed to last 100,000 miles, and then you drive it 4 million miles without ever changing its oil—that’s just amazing!” Callas said. For the past few months he and his colleagues have been counting down the distance on an office whiteboard. The final leg of the race, about 140 feet, is an entry they now feel lucky to erase.

“We’re well past our warranty on this rover,” said Callas. “The thing we live with every day is that the rover can die tomorrow.”

And there are many things that can go wrong with a robot that’s past its prime. For instance, the team thought the wheels would wear out, a problem that helped decommission Spirit, its twin rover, two years and seven kilometers into its mission. Even Opportunity’s final push did not come without its hurdles. Days before the golf-cart-sized vehicle began the last part of this journey, Callas and his team had to reformat its flash memory, a portion of which was becoming corrupted and causing episodes of “ amnesia .” For three months Opportunity operated without its flash memory, which normally stores crucial operating data that the rover can utilize whenever it’s powered up. The fix included recreating part of the rover’s software, a task Callas likened to reprogramming your computer’s operating system while it’s 140 million miles away.

Now with its memory reformatted, Opportunity is prepped to investigate Marathon Valley, which was named in honor of the distance the rover travelled to get to it. The dusty destination is located on the western rim of Mars’s Endeavor Crater, and is of special interest to NASA because the organization’s orbiting spacecraft has hinted that there might be clay minerals in the valley. Clay minerals form in locations with neutral pH levels, like water. A key finding here may offer clues to the idea that the Red Planet was friendlier to microbial life when it was a warmer and wetter place.

The distance that the Opportunity Mars rover has travelled to complete its historic marathon (NASA)

Investigations like this are part of the reason why it took Opportunity 11 years to complete a marathon. The rover’s mission is to explore. Every day on Mars, it drove up to interesting geological features and spent time inspecting them, in much the same way that a geologist kneels down to examine a rock with a brush and magnifying glass. The rover has been busy every day of those 11 years, and while the Soviet Union’s Lunokhod 2 moon rover traveled 24.2 miles (39 kilometers) in only five months, it stopped a mere three kilometers shy of being the first to make the historic milestone. But on July 27, 2014, Opportunity overtook Lunokhod 2’s record for longest distance travelled by a vehicle outside of Earth, and then went on to cross the metaphoric marathon tape.

“Our rover only moves about as fast as a tortoise, so the analogy of the tortoise and the hare—slow and steady wins the race—is the case here,” Callas said of the record-setting trek. “Our tortoise—this rover—did win the race.”

Though Opportunity may have bested the rovers that came before it, Callas contends that there’s no competition between it and its younger, more agile cousin Curiosity. Rather, Callas said the objective for both of these vehicles is to do the best job they can for advancing scientific exploration. Still, he said he celebrates the historic side-achievements. “The marathon has become significant in the human experience,” Callas said. “Now that distance has been replicated on another world.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.