Six-wheeling Mars rover a record-setter

Todd Halvorson | Florida Today

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Mars Opportunity rover is America's new champion for distance driving on another planet, and the enduring robotic geologist might set a world record in the coming months.

Six-wheeling around a Martian equatorial region once awash with water, the Opportunity rover this month eclipsed a U.S. distance record set by two Apollo astronauts driving a moon buggy around a lunar valley called Taurus-Littrow in December 1972.

Astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan traveled 22.21 statute miles in a lunar surface rover during a three-day moon-stay that marked the end of the Apollo program.

Now in its ninth year on Mars, the Opportunity rover is investigating the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover's odometer recently surpassed 22.22 miles.

"The record we established with a roving vehicle was made to be broken," Schmitt told a colleague at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., recently. "And I'm excited and proud to be able to pass the torch to Opportunity."

The international record for driving distance on another planet — 23 miles — still is held by the former Soviet Union's remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover in 1973.

Opportunity launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station aboard a Delta II rocket in July 2003 and landed on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004. The size of an electric golf cart, the rover has far exceeded its 90-day design life.

"The rover Opportunity is in surprisingly good health considering she has been operating on Mars for nine years," said project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Her longevity is truly amazing when you consider the very harsh environment on the surface."

Surface temperatures range from minus-199 degrees Fahrenheit at night to 80 degrees Fahrenheit midday. Winds gust up to 80 mph. Local, regional and global dust storms that generate whirlwinds called "dust devils."

Scientists and engineers think Opportunity could set a new distance-driving benchmark by early 2014.

First, Opportunity will examine a fractured rock called "Esperance." Planetary geologists think the rock might have been intensely altered by water, a key ingredient in the scientific recipe for life. "Esperance is so important, we committed several weeks to getting this one measurement of it, even though we know the clock is ticking," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for the mission.

Opportunity's twin, the Spirit rover, launched in June 2003 from Cape Canaveral and then landed in Gusev Crater on Jan. 4, 2004. It operated for six years.

Opportunity still is chugging along after more than 3,400 days on the Martian surface. Its next roving goal: an area called Solander Point, which is 1.4 miles away.

A successful trip to Solander Point would establish a new world record. But project officials understand the rover is operating on borrowed time.

"There is no telling when Opportunity might experience a major failure. So each extra day on Mars is a gift," Callas said.

Mars Opportunity rover

Launched: July 7, 2003

Launch site: Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Launch vehicle: Delta II Heavy rocket

Mars landing: Jan. 25, 2004

Landing site: Meridiana Planum, a smooth equatorial plain covered in gray hematite, an iron-oxide material that forms in water on Earth.

Planned mission duration: 90 days

Mission duration to date: 3,404 days; or nine years, three months and 26 days