Perseverance Rover Sets Distance Record & Artemis II Lunar Science Data Released - Space News (Oct 14, 2026)

Support The Automated Daily directly: Buy me a coffee: buymeacoffee.com/theautomateddaily Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - KrispCall: Agentic Cloud Telephony - https://try.krispcall.com/tad - Consensus: AI for Research. Get a free month - https://get.consensus.app/automated_daily - Lindy is your ultimate AI assistant that proactively manages your inbox - https://try.lindy.ai/tad Today's topics: Perseverance Rover Sets Distance Record - NASA's Perseverance rover has broken the all-time off-world driving distance record, surpassing Opportunity after traversing Jezero Crater. Artemis II Lunar Science Data Released - NASA released over 800 gigabytes of Artemis II lunar science data, including images, video, and crew audio observations for global researchers. CRS-35 Cargo Dragon Launches To ISS - A SpaceX Dragon launched on NASA's CRS-35 mission carrying solar arrays, biomedical experiments, and student-built CubeSats to the ISS. ESA Astronaut Returns From Station - ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot returned to Earth after nearly eight months on the ISS, while ESA signs new post-ISS partnership agreements. October Skywatching And Astronomy Highlights - NASA's October skywatching guide, a striking Astronomy Picture of the Day, and an astronaut's iPhone aurora photo highlight public astronomy engagement. Episode Transcript Perseverance Rover Sets Distance Record Let's start with that quiet traveler on Mars. NASA's Perseverance rover has now driven farther across another world than any vehicle in history, edging past the distance record long held by its predecessor, Opportunity. As of this week, Perseverance has covered just over twenty-eight miles, or about forty-five kilometers, on the floor of Jezero Crater, a journey that has taken it across ancient lakebeds and river deltas in search of signs of past life. The record means the rover has sustained operations long enough to sample multiple environments and cache rock cores that could one day be brought back to Earth, showing that today's Mars rovers can keep rolling and keep doing science for years. Artemis II Lunar Science Data Released While Perseverance has been busy on Mars, NASA has opened up the full science record from humanity's latest journey around the Moon. The agency has released more than eight hundred gigabytes of data from the Artemis II mission into its planetary data archive, including over eleven thousand high-resolution images and videos and more than eight hours of recor