Soon, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will celebrate a remarkable milestone.
The team overseeing the Perseverance rover has announced that on February 18, 2026, it will mark five years since its arrival on the Red Planet.
Perseverance is hailed as a masterpiece of engineering. For five years, this spacecraft has been exploring the Jezero Crater and its surroundings on Mars, searching for signs of ancient microbial life. It has collected rock samples and tested cutting-edge technologies, paving the way for future manned missions to Mars.
The rover’s journey has led to not only incredible discoveries but also record-setting distances traveled on another planet.
For the past month, Perseverance has been stationary due to Mars being positioned behind the Sun, disrupting radio communication between the Red Planet and Earth. However, as of December 11, 2025, the rover has traveled a total of 42.32 kilometers, surpassing the distance of a marathon runner (42.195 km).
Chasing the Record
There is only one rover that has covered a greater distance on another planet: NASA’s Opportunity rover. During its mission, it traveled 45.16 kilometers.
Perseverance is determined to break this record, and it could happen as soon as this year. However, it all depends on where the researchers decide to send the rover.
“The science team is deciding how it will spend its time. If the goal were to quickly cover a few kilometers, we could achieve that in a matter of weeks,” said Mark Maimone, a long-time pilot of the Perseverance rover and mobility engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in an interview with IFLScience.
“Only recently, thanks to the software and hardware for autonomous navigation, Perseverance has been able to move autonomously at nearly its maximum mechanical speed,” Maimone explained.
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Captured This View on September 8, 2025
While NASA engineers chart the rover’s course and plan its scientific investigations daily, once Perseverance starts moving, it is on its own. The rover relies on its autonomous systems to navigate any unexpected obstacles in its path.
“We have learned a lot from previous missions, including how to operate the rover even after engine failures,” Maimone says. The scientist is confident that even if Perseverance encounters issues, the team will overcome them, and the rover will continue its explorations.
Anyone interested can track Perseverance’s route on NASA’s interactive map.
Photo: NASA
