PASADENA, the United States, Feb. 12 (Xinhuanet) - Mars rover Spirit set a new driving record on the Red Planet on Thursday, said NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Lab here.

    The rover added 24.4 meters to its odometer in two hours and 48 minutes while getting near an interesting set of rocks dubbed "Stone Council," NASA said in a daily update of information on the rovers.

    Spirit finished the driving at 7:20 a.m. US Pacific Standard Time, according to the Flight Team at JPL.

    "The day's commands were uplinked during the cool morning hours via Spirit's low-gain antenna, to bypass a problem diagnosed the preceding day as shade slowing the warm-up of motors that move the high-gain antenna," NASA said.

    Before rolling, Spirit took images with its microscopic imager and panoramic camera from the site where it started the day, according to JPL. Enditem