https://xcdr.tv/videos/watch/6abcf584-38f9-4183-a17b-54caaa89405e Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are field-testing advanced capabilities for potential future Moon and Mars rovers. In the Colorado Desert near Plaster City, California, teams used a prototype rover called ERNEST (Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain) to test software for a potential future long-range lunar mission. The software enables the rover, developed at JPL, to operate autonomously and travel extreme distances with minimal intervention from human operators. For this field campaign, conducted in March 2026, ERNEST was trailed by engineers as it traveled about 16 miles over the course of 37 hours of drive time. That’s more than 10 times the speed at which NASA’s Perseverance rover can navigate on Mars. The team also tested how well the rover traveled at dusk and dawn — when shadows are long, like on the Moon — as well as at night. They were using ERNEST as a testbed to prove they can build a rover that’s twice as big and capable of a long-distance Moon mission. Work on ERNEST began in 2022 and was initially funded by JPL internal research and development funds. It’s currently supported by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The field test was funded by NASA’s Exploration Science Strategy Integration Office under its Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Fri, 19 Jun 2026 11:28:02 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://xcdr.tv https://xcdr.tv/lazy-static/avatars/d7ff3488-9036-438f-95d1-547afee4fcf4.png https://xcdr.tv/videos/watch/6abcf584-38f9-4183-a17b-54caaa89405e All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://xcdr.tv/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.