The Mars Global Localization system was validated with a campaign that began in 2023 using data from 264 previous Perseverance rover stops.
As more missions adopt faster commercial-grade computing hardware, Perseverance’s experience may guide designs that balance performance with fault detection and mitigation in harsh space environments.
Mars Global Localization builds on Perseverance's AutoNav self-driving system, which enables the rover to re-plan routes around obstacles en route to designated destinations.
The Mars rover Perseverance uses AI to program its trajectories.
The team implemented a sanity-check process in which the localization algorithm runs multiple times on the Helicopter Base Station before one of Perseverance’s main computers verifies result consistency.
Mars Global Localization enables Perseverance to stop, autonomously match a newly acquired 360-degree panorama to Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter maps, and continue along a preplanned route without waiting for human confirmation.
Mars Global Localization complements an earlier Perseverance software enhancement that uses generative artificial intelligence to select waypoints for the rover’s route.
Position errors accumulated over long drives so Perseverance could be off by more than 35 meters, causing the rover to halt early near hazardous terrain until updated instructions arrived.
The orbital-matching algorithm for Mars Global Localization requires more computing power than Perseverance's two main radiation-hardened computers can efficiently provide.
The Helicopter Base Station’s commercial processor runs more than 100 times faster than Perseverance’s primary avionics.
Together, AI waypoint planning and Mars Global Localization are intended to help Perseverance cover more ground more quickly while it explores Jezero Crater and collects samples for possible return to Earth.
Experience with Ingenuity inspired engineers to reuse Helicopter Base Station hardware for Perseverance surface navigation.
AutoNav’s performance has been limited more by uncertainties in Perseverance’s absolute position than by onboard path-planning.
Perseverance previously relied on inertial measurements and visual odometry with periodic position corrections from orbital imagery.
The samples collected by the Perseverance rover could help address whether life ever existed on Mars.
Michela Muñoz presented the Mars Sample Return Program as a joint NASA and ESA mission to recover samples collected by the Perseverance rover and return them to Earth for detailed analysis.
Michela Muñoz contributed to NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance Mars rover missions while at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Rocket Lab provided hardware and software contributions to NASA Mars missions including the InSight lander, the Perseverance rover, and the Ingenuity helicopter.
Perseverance executed a second AI-planned drive of 807 feet (246 meters) on December 10, 2025.
The Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and supports the Science Mission Directorate’s goals for exploring Mars and preparing for future human expeditions.