AI drives a Perseverance rover for two days.

“This annotated orbital image shows Perseverance's route during its second day of autonomous driving on Dec. 10th, 2025. The magenta line shows the AI-planned route. And. The orange line shows the actual route. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UofA” (UniverseToday, NASA Let AI Drive The Perseverance Rover For Two Days)

NASA lets the Perseverance rover drive for two days under AI control. This is a crucial step for AI-driven rovers. If humans want to send rovers to Jupiter's icy moons, and beyond that, it means those rovers must have the ability to operate independently. The ability to operate without non-stop communication with ground stations is vital because the signal travels between Earth and Jupiter for 32-57 minutes. This makes it hard to control robots on Jupiter’s icy moons from Earth. 

The ability to operate independently is important for many reasons. If. The rover goes into a cave and loses contact with Earth. That means the rover must know how to reestablish contact. The ability to travel into caves is important. Because. It's possible to find remnants of ancient life in those places. Caves protect DNA or RNA remnants, if they exist, from the UV radiation. If. There were. Some lifeforms. On the red planet. 

The remnants of those cells. And their genetic material could most probably be found in caves. In other places, the UV radiation destroyed those molecules. The independently operating robots can also operate underwater and on the other side of the moon. The ability to operate independently will be made possible. To collect samples from places where the Earth is invisible. 

The Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). It can give the man-shaped robot an unlimited operational range. Those robots can operate underwater, and those conditions can be simulated. Conditions that those systems can face on distant moons of the giant planets. 

The robot is a good tool. To research underwater caves and shipwrecks. Those robots can operate under heavy pressure. And they must not care about the decompression or any other things. The radioisotope generator gives those robots almost unlimited operational time. Another possibility is to equip those underwater robots with capillary tubes that allow the water to travel through them. 

That water flow can rotate generators. The underwater robot can use the same technology as Perseverance. But the system requires more resistance against pressure. But. The underwater robot. It can look like a man. A human-shaped robot that uses radioisotope batteries can operate for years. Those systems are interesting because AI-driven robots can be used to build the Mars and lunar space stations. 

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/nasa-let-ai-drive-the-perseverance-rover-for-two-days