NASA JPL Unveils Rover Operations Center for Moon, Mars Missions
The center leverages AI along with JPL’s unique infrastructure, unmatched tools and years of operational expertise to help industry partners develop future planetary surface missions.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California on Wednesday inaugurated its Rover Operations Center (ROC), a center of excellence for current and future surface missions to the Moon and Mars. At the launch event, leaders from the commercial space and AI sectors toured the facilities, participated in working sessions with JPL mission teams, and learned about the first-ever use of generative AI by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover team to create future routes for the robotic explorer.
The center was created to integrate and innovate JPL’s planetary missions while simultaneously forging strategic partnerships with industry and academia to advance U.S. interests in the growing space economy. The center draws on more than 30 years of JPL experience developing and operating missions to the surface of Mars, including humanity’s only helicopter to fly on Mars as well as the only two active missions to the surface of Mars.
“The Rover Operations Center is a force multiplier,” said JPL Director Dave Gallagher. “It integrates decades of specialized knowledge with powerful new tools and exports that knowledge through partnerships to catalyze the next generation of missions to the surface of the Moon and Mars. As NASA’s federally funded research and development center, we have been approved to do exactly this type of work – to increase the cadence, efficiency and impact of our transformative NASA missions and to support the commercial space market as they take their own giant leaps.”
Over decades of successful rover missions to Mars, JPL has continually improved the unique autonomy, robotic capabilities and best practices demanded by increasingly complex robotic explorers. The ROC provides an accessible centralized structure to facilitate future exploration efforts.
“Our rovers are lasting longer and are more sophisticated than ever. The scientific stakes are high, as we have just seen with the discovery of a potential biosignature in Jezero Crater by the Perseverance mission. We are beginning a decade of unprecedented civil and commercial exploration on the Moon, which will require robotic systems to assist astronauts and support lunar infrastructure,” said Matt Wallace, who directs JPL’s Exploration Systems Office. “Mobile vehicles like rovers, helicopters and drones are the most dynamic and challenging assets we operate. It’s time to move up a gear and bring everyone possible with us.”
A key goal of the ROC is to inject higher-level autonomy into surface missions more quickly through partnerships with the AI and commercial space industries. The goal is to catalyze change to deliver next-generation science and exploration capabilities to the nation and NASA.
As NASA’s only federally funded research and development center, JPL has been advancing vehicle autonomy since the 1990s, when JPL began developing Sojourner, the first rover on another planet. Improvements in vehicle independence over the years have included the evolution of autonomy in sampling activities, driving, and scientific target selection. More recently, these improvements have extended to developing Perseverance’s ability to autonomously plan and execute many energy-intensive commanded activities, such as staying warm at night, as it sees fit. This capability allows the rover to save energy, which it can reallocate in real time to perform more scientific research or longer journeys.
With AI capabilities exploding, the ROC rover team is leaving no stone unturned for Mars in the pursuit of future efficiencies.
“We asked a small team to take on a ‘three-week challenge,’ applying generative AI to a few of our operational use cases. During this challenge, it became clear that there are many AI injection opportunities that can supercharge our capabilities,” said Jennifer Trosper, ROC program manager at JPL. “Through these new partnerships, together we will integrate AI into operations to find the next generation of capabilities for science and exploration. »
During the ROC inauguration, participants toured JPL’s operational facilities, including where the rover drivers plan their next routes. They also visited JPL’s historic Mars Yard, which replicates Martian terrain to test the rover’s capabilities, and the massive 25-foot space simulator that tested spacecraft from Voyagers 1 and 2 to Perseverance to the next generation of U.S. lunar landers. A panel discussion explored the historic value of rovers and aerial systems like the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in exploring the planetary surface. The promise of a new public-private partnership opportunity through a virtual network of operational missions was also discussed.
Attendees were briefed on multi-level engagement options for partners, from mission architecture support to autonomy integration, testing and operations. These opportunities extend to human precursor science and robotic missions, as well as human-robotic interaction and astronaut spacewalks to the Moon and Mars.
A highlight for event attendees came when the Perseverance team demonstrated how ROC’s generative AI can help rover planners create future routes for the rover. The AI analyzed high-resolution orbital images of Jezero Crater and other relevant data, then generated waypoints that steered Perseverance away from dangerous terrain.
Managed for NASA by Caltech, JPL is home to the Rover Operations Center (ROC).
To learn more about the ROC, visit:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/roc
Contact News Media
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
2025-137
