Seonglae ChoIn December 2025, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory conducted a pioneering test where AI (Anthropic's Claude) planned a ~400m driving route for the Perseverance rover on Mars for the first time. Due to communication delays (~20 minutes), the rover requires pre-planned routes rather than real-time remote control.
A task traditionally performed by human experts. Claude automatically generated waypoint routes based on satellite/rover imagery and historical operational data, and even wrote the necessary Rover Markup Language code. After validation through simulation (500,000+ variables), the route was transmitted and the rover successfully completed the drive. Route planning time is expected to be reduced by approximately 50% compared to human planning. This demonstrates the potential for highly autonomous AI exploration systems for future missions to the Moon (Artemis), deep space, and beyond.
Claude AI Powers First AI-Planned Mars Rover Drive | Anthropic
The first AI-assisted drive on another planet. Claude by Anthropic helped NASA's Perseverance rover travel four hundred meters on Mars.
https://www.anthropic.com/features/claude-on-mars
Perseverance Rover Captures Awesome Video of Helicopter Flying on Mars
Though Ingenuity continues to break its own records as the first powered, controlled flying machine on another planet, we haven't had have much visual evidence of its exploits. There's the telemetry data that NASA scientists receive on Earth, but not much in the way of photos and videos.
https://gizmodo.com/perseverance-rover-captures-awesome-video-of-helicopter-1848089009
Project from 2020
Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover - NASA Science
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover seeks signs of ancient life and collects samples of rock and regolith for possible Earth return.
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/
