thenewenlightenmentage: Charted: Extraterrestrial Driving Records NASA has just released this cute chart depicting the various distances traveled by wheeled machines on other worlds (click to enlarge). The comparison was put out in honor of the agency's Opportunity rover, which has been on Mars since 2004, beating NASA's previous distance record-holder, the Apollo 17 moon buggy. During its nine years of operations, Opportunity has roved 35.760 kilometers, edging out the Apollo astronaut's 35.744-kilometer drive. The champion for driving on another surface still goes to the Soviet Lunokhod 2 rover, which traveled 37 kilometers across the moon in 1973. Of course, Opportunity still has the *ahem* opportunity to overtake the international record holder since it's continuing to rove around the rim of Endeavour crater on Mars. The little robot has been exploring that area since 2011 and has uncovered some of the most unambiguous evidence for water on ancient Mars. Though NASA's celebrated Curiosity rover has only gone less than one kilometer since landing in August, it has nuclear batteries that could last 14 years at minimum — ample time to beat all competitors. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech