Mars rover passes distance milestone

PASADENA, Calif., June 3 (UPI) -- With a recent drive, the Mars Rover Opportunity reached a milestone as it totaled more than 30 kilometers of exploratory driving on the red planet, NASA said.

A drive of 482 feet Wednesday took the rover past the 30-kilometer (18.64-mile) mark, more than 50 times the distance originally planned for the mission, a release from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., reported.

The drives have taken the rover on a tour of martian craters, including a small, 30-foot, relatively young crater informally dubbed "Skylab" the rover photographed last month.

Opportunity passed it as it made its way toward its long-term destination, Endeavour crater, which is 14 miles in diameter.

Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004, but both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions.

While Opportunity remains alive and mobile, Spirit has not communicated with Earth since March 2010, JPL said.