Visualizing Perseverance’s AI-Planned Drive on Mars
This animation from NASA’s Perseverance was created with the Caspian Visualization Tool using data acquired during an 807-foot (246-meter) drive over the rim of Jezero Crater taken by the rover on December 10, 2025, the 1,709th Martian day or sol of the mission. The mission’s “drivers,” or rover planners, use the information to understand Perseverance’s autonomous decision-making process during its journey by showing why it chose a specific path over other options.
This was one of two campaigns, the first taking place on December 8, in which generative artificial intelligence provided route planning. The AI analyzed high-resolution orbital images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and terrain slope data from digital elevation models to identify critical terrain features – bedrock, outcrops, hazardous boulder fields, sand ripples, and more. From this analysis, it generated a continuous path complete with waypoints, fixed locations where the rover follows a new set of instructions.
The pale blue lines represent the path taken by the rover’s wheels. The black lines snaking in front of the rover represent the different path options the rover is considering at any given moment. The white terrain that Perseverance moves over in the animation is a height map generated using data collected by the rover during the ride. The pale blue circle that appears in front of the mobile towards the end of the animation is a waypoint.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed for the agency by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
To learn more about perseverance: science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/
