A long journey without a road
At first glance, they are just wheel tracks across sand and rocks. But they mark a journey that took Perseverance farther than any vehicle has driven on another celestial body: its odometer reached 45.22 kilometers on October 11.
The photograph was taken that same day. The mission page is dated October 21, while the account by engineer Vandi Verma is dated October 12. The record was not set today.
There was no need to rush
Two months earlier, the rover was about 200 meters short of the record. It could have covered that distance, but stopped to investigate rocks that interested the science team.
The update also explains how the rover finds its position by comparing images taken on the ground with images from orbit. It does not rely on a Martian GPS network.
There is nothing to download to follow this exploration story. Readers in Mexico can view the image and read the account on the mission’s public website.
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