Can Mars rovers drive themselves?
Mars rovers drive themselves using AI because radio signals take up to 20 minutes to travel from Earth, making real-time manual control impossible.
When you send a command to a Mars rover from Earth, the radio signal travels at the speed of light but still takes up to 20 minutes to arrive. By the time you get a response, another 20 minutes has passed—far too long if the rover is about to hit an obstacle. To solve this, NASA installed autonomous navigation systems that let rovers like Perseverance see their surroundings with onboard cameras, detect hazards, and plan safe routes on their own. This allows them to travel hundreds of meters every day without waiting for instructions from home.
Nerd Mode
The distance between Earth and Mars varies dramatically—from 54.6 million kilometers at closest approach to over 400 million kilometers when the planets are on opposite sides of the Sun. Because radio waves travel at light speed, signals take between 3 and 22 minutes to reach Mars depending on orbital positions. This delay is catastrophic for manual control: if a rover were rolling toward a cliff, a "stop" command from Earth would arrive too late to prevent a crash.NASA solved this problem by developing the Autonomous Navigation (AutoNav) system. The technology was first tested on the Sojourner rover in 1997 and has evolved significantly since then. The Perseverance rover, which landed in 2021 as part of the Mars 2020 mission, uses a dedicated onboard computer and advanced Vision Compute Element (VCE) to process 3D terrain images in real time, identifying hazards like sharp rocks and steep slopes.This autonomy dramatically improved rover speed and efficiency. Older rovers like Opportunity moved cautiously at about 20 meters per hour while navigating. Perseverance can reach speeds of 120 meters per hour thanks to its "thinking while driving" capability—the ability to map terrain and plan a path simultaneously as the wheels turn. This level of independence is essential for maximizing scientific discoveries before the harsh Martian environment eventually damages the hardware.
Verified Fact
FP-0003006 · Feb 17, 2026