On June 13, 2026, NASA’s Perseverance rover was captured as a green speck on the Martian surface, just a day before the rover reached a historic distance milestone: a full marathon of 26.2 miles (42.195 km) on the Red Planet.
The image was taken by the High‑Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The rover’s tracks are clearly visible, tracing the terrain west of Jezero Crater in an area the science team calls “Arbot.”
Perseverance completed the marathon after five years and four months of driving, arriving at the 1,890th Martian day (sol) of its mission. The previous record holder, NASA’s Opportunity rover, took 11 years and two months to reach the same distance.
Managed for NASA by Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California operates both the Perseverance rover and the MRO on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate as part of the Mars Exploration Program portfolio. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the MRO and supports its operations. The University of Arizona in Tucson operates HiRISE, which was built by BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado.
Figure A shows the same image with a yellow circle indicating Perseverance.
To learn more about these missions, visit: Kaynak
