NASA's Curiosity rover has stolen much of the spotlight on Mars lately with its discoveries of once-watery environments and strange, door-handle shaped rocks. But this week, NASA's older rover Opportunity drove into the history books, becoming the furthest NASA object to travel on the surface of another body in the solar system. Opportunity's total 22.22 miles driven on Mars since landing there January 2004 is still short of the all-time record for interplanetary driving, the 23 miles that the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover drove over the surface of the Moon in 1973. But Opportunity's long journey beats NASA's previous record, the 19.3 miles that NASA astronauts traveled in the Apollo 17 lunar rover in 1972.
via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/17/4341478/mars-rover-opportunity-record-nasa-drive-off-earth
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