Mars explorer ship broke the record in the universe

The Opportunity exploration ship has just officially broken the record of the passage of a planet in the space that has existed for more than 40 years by Apollo 17.

May 16, marking a great event of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA). That is the opportunity to travel more 80m on Mars, increasing the total distance it moves in Red planet to 35,760km. This helps Opportunity break the established Apollo 17 record in 1972 to become the longest journey on another planet.

Opportunity landed on Mars on January 24, 2004. Initially, this self-propelled vessel was commissioned by NASA to self-discover Red planet within 9 months. However, it made even the creators of it have to keep their eyes open while still working well . 9 years have passed.

NASA's Opportunity Ship. (Photos: Wikipedia)

Scientists believe that the current opportunity of Opportunity is a miracle because it has existed 37 times longer than expected.

In January 2013, Professor Steve Squyres of Cornell University (USA), who contributed significantly to the Opportunity project, confided on the occasion of the 9th anniversary of this machine to Mars: "confess, first I also do not think that Opportunity will work for 9 months on Mars, but it has been there for 9 years.

Before Opportunity established a new record, the glory belonged to Apollo 17 and the two astronauts on this ship were Harrison Schmidt and Eugene Cernan.

In December 1972, Apollo 17 spent nearly 75 hours (more than 3 days) on the Moon's surface, marking the last time humans flew to the planet or even flying through the Earth's low orbit. .

The two astronauts drove the Lunar (LRV-3) on a journey of 35,744km for three days in a valley called Taurus-Littrow on the Moon, at the hemisphere always facing the Earth.

The face-to-face Opportunity did not disappoint Mr. Eugene Cernan but quite the opposite: "I am proud that our record was finally overcome by Opportunity".

It is known that Opportunity easily defeated the old records of self-propelled vehicles on another planet of the Solar System, which was held by the Soviet-controlled Lunokhod 2 remote control robot. In 1973, Lunokhod 2 traveled 37 km on the Moon's surface.