Perseverance has now driven farther than any vehicle on another world — and it did it in less than half the time of the rover it passed, by driving itself. The record fell on an ordinary drive. On October 11, on its 2,006th Martian day, NASA's Perseverance rover rolled 299.6 feet across the surface. That short leg pushed its lifetime total to 28.10 miles (45.22 kilometres) — past the 28.06 miles logged by Opportunity between 2004 and 2018, and past every lunar rover as well.

Every Mars plan is, underneath, a freight quote. And freight is priced by the kilo. Here is what a kilogram has cost, what it costs now, and what has to be true before Mars cargo is a business instead of a budget line. Ask a shipping company what anything costs and the answer starts with weight. Mars is no different — it is just the longest route in the business, and for most of history the rate card was absurd. The curve: sixty-five years of falling freight A 2026 Cambridge