Opportunity Breaks American Distance Record

The Opportunity rover recently broke the U. S. record for distance driven on another world, at just over 22 miles.  The previous record was held by the moon buggy used by Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmidt on Apollo 17.  The international record is held by the Soviet Union's 1973 Lunokhod 2 moon rover at 23 miles.  Opportunity still has a shot at that.

The time scale is instructive.  Cernan and Schmidt spent about three days on the Moon when their buggy set the record.  Opportunity took nine years on Mars to beat it.  If we want speed and efficiency in space exploration, as remarkable as Opportunity has been, there's a case to be made for sending humans.