NASA’s Perseverance rover has set a new record for driving on the surface of another world, covering 28.1 miles (45.2 km) on Mars since its arrival in 2021. The US space agency announced the milestone on Tuesday, marking a major achievement in the rover’s mission to investigate whether Mars once supported microbial life.

The car-sized, six-wheeled rover reached the milestone five and a half years into its mission. It is exploring some of the oldest terrain in the solar system.

"Perseverance's engineering hardware and instruments are in excellent shape with all redundant systems still available," Steven Lee of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told Reuters.

"A recent assessment of all systems concluded that they are capable of operating well into the 2030s, likely beyond," added Lee, the project manager for NASA's two Mars rovers, Perseverance and Curiosity.

Perseverance has surpassed the previous record of 28.06 miles (45 km), set by NASA’s Opportunity rover during its 2004–2018 mission. Both rovers have also covered greater distances than any vehicle on the Moon.

Perseverance has focused on Jezero Crater in Mars’ northern hemisphere. Scientists believe water once flooded the region and formed a lake basin billions of years ago. The rover reached the milestone while travelling towards an area called Idubi, through terrain near the crater’s western rim known as Lac de Charmes. Meanwhile, Curiosity continues exploring Gale Crater near the Martian equator.

Lee said Perseverance shows no signs of slowing down. NASA is testing its mobility systems to demonstrate their ability to cover 100 km (62 miles) or more. The hardware will undergo tests equivalent to driving 150 km to 300 km (93 miles to 186 miles).

NASA credited the rover’s autonomous navigation system, AutoNav, for much of its success. Lee said 90% of its drives are completed without human intervention.

"Perseverance takes stereo images of the terrain ahead, generates a 3D software map, and selects the safest path towards a drive goal," he said.

The rover also uses a Vision Compute Element, a fast co-processor that processes images and runs its driving software almost continuously. Earlier rovers had to pause to "think" before each driving segment.

"Perseverance builds on the 29-year legacy of our past Mars rovers — Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity — each incorporating prior lessons and improving our ability to drive on another world," Lee said.

Lee identified Perseverance’s discovery of a potential biosignature, announced last year, as its biggest achievement. The possible sign of ancient microbial life appeared in reddish rock estimated to be 3.2 billion to 3.8 billion years old, in a river channel that once fed Jezero Crater’s lake.

Lac de Charmes may offer clues about early planetary geology, including the effects of major meteorite impacts. Such an impact formed Jezero Crater. Orbital evidence also suggests parts of its rim once hosted hydrothermal systems with warm or hot groundwater.

"These areas may once have provided a warm, watery subsurface environment conducive to life," he added. "Indeed, some palaeontologists hypothesise that life on Earth began in such environments."

NASA originally planned for Perseverance to drive just 12.4 miles (20 km). The agency has extended its mission to explore the crater rim until around the end of 2028. Its plutonium-based power system continues to perform as expected and has "many years of useful energy still available."