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Opportunity Breaks NASA's 40-Year Roving Record
astroengine writes "After nine years of hard Mars roving, Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity has broken a 40-year-old extraterrestrial distance record. On Thursday, the tenacious six-wheeled robot drove 80 meters (263 feet), nudging the total distance traveled since landing on the red planet in 2004 to 35.760 kilometers (22.220 miles). NASA's previous distance record was held by Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt when, in December 1972, they drove their Lunar Roving Vehicle 35.744 kilometers (22.210 miles) over the lunar surface. Although it's broken the NASA distance record, it hasn't surpassed the international record, yet. The Soviet Lunokhod 2 remote-controlled moon rover roved 37 kilometers (23 miles) across the lunar surface and, so far, remains the undisputed champion of distance driving on an extraterrestrial surface."
Wolfram Alpha converts 45cm/h to 0.7516 furlongs per fortnight. You're welcome.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
We're still kicking ass in terms of total distance traveled in space, thanks to V'Ger... err, Voyager. But we still have a long way to go to catch up with total extraterrestrial crash landings and highest BAC in space.
Soviet Union
1st Satleite to orbit Earth
1st Animal in space
1st Man in space
1st Woman in space
1st multiple personnel in space
1st Object into inter planetary space
1st lunar probe
1st Venusian probe
1st Martian probe
1st Space walk
1st space station
NASA
1st Cokacola in space
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.