Strange Worlds

I love knowing that humankind's robotic creations are rolling around strange worlds exploring them for us as we watch from afar. We are there through them.

This photo is from China's Chang'e-4 of the No. 4 lunar rover named "Yu Rabbit No. 2"

Here is a photo of the ground that the Mars Curiosity Rover has covered (over 12 miles, or close to 20 kilometers since landing in 2012).

Here is a chart of the distances we have covered (from a great wiki article on rovers here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_(space_exploration)

Note: The Mars Curiosity Rover info is not up to date in this chart. 
Note 2: Further research suggests the possibility that the Lunokhod 2 may actually be the record holder. See - https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/15/soviet-lunar-rover-lunokhod-off-planet-driving-record_n_3598067.html. I have reported on R.U.S. about the incredible Lunokhod missions. See - https://roboticsunderthestole.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-first-robotic-rover.html

As you can see, the champ is the Mars Opportunity Rover at around 40 kilometers, followed by the Soviet Unions' Lunokhod 2, the second of two unmanned lunar rovers in 1973!

And just today, I drove this robot, built by my friend Nikos Giannakopoulos, around his office in Greece - the other side of our world - via the internet.

Robots let us explore places we can't be in person. Unbelievable!