Perseverance narrowly beats Opportunity to become the robot that has driven furthest on Mars

The rover's odometer reads exactly 45.22 kilometres. It covered them in five and a half years, a span Futura-Sciences describes, not without irony, as “barely”.

The previous record was a narrow one. Opportunity, which arrived in 2004, operated for 15 years and racked up 45.16 kilometres. Its twin Spirit, beaten by the cold in 2010, had covered only 7.7.

According to Futura-Sciences, Perseverance owes this record to its autonomous navigation. The rover analyses the terrain itself and steers around obstacles on its own, without waiting for instructions sent from Earth.