Moon find resets extra-terrestrial driving benchmark

A ONCE-lost Russian robot found on the moon last month has reset the extra-terrestrial driving record – sparking a new space race.

The find was a dint in the pride for NASA’s US-flagged Opportunity rover, which landed on Mars in 2004 and was last month believed to be nearing the extra-terrestrial driving record set by the eight-wheeled Lunokhod 2, a Russian lunar rover that landed on the moon in 1973.

However, after driving for 37 kilometres on the surface of Mars, the six-wheeled Opportunity’s attempt to break the record has become even more of a challenge after a separate NASA project scanning the moon rediscovered the lost Russian lunar rover – and reset the distance benchmark.

According to scientists that have re-traced the Volkswagen Beetle-sized Lunokhod 2’s path on the lunar surface during its four-month mission, the distance the Mars-bound Opportunity needs to cover to claim the record is now 42km.

NASA says the rover – sent to the red planet as part of a mission that originally planned to last for 90 Martian days and drive for up to a kilometre, but has recently passed the nine-year mark – broke the 37km benchmark late last month.

NASA spokesman Guy Webster told GoAuto the Opportunity rover now had to aim for a higher distance target.

“The odometry estimates for Russia's Lunokhod 2 have recently been revised upward, based on imagery of its tracks from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,” Mr Webster said.

However, while the Opportunity rover is yet to beat the all-out extra-terrestrial distance record, it has reclaimed the US driving record set by Apollo 17’s landing team, which drove the mission’s lunar rover for a distance of 27.8km.

Unfortunately for Russia, the Lunokhod 2 could have covered an even greater distance but for an unforeseen bit of bad luck that only recently came to light.

According to one of the key scientists on the mission, the Lunokhod 2’s dish-shaped lid scooped up some of the moon’s soil while tractoring through a crater, and dumped it on vital cooling equipment inside the rover’s shell as it closed up for the night.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has recently photographed the Lunokhod 2 rover – still inside the crater that stopped it.

NASA’s Mars rover mission sent two vehicles to explore the planet. However, while Opportunity continues to move around and collect more scientific data way past its use-by date, its identical Spirit rover fell silent in 2011.