NASA’s New Prototype Rover Navigates 16-Miles in Extreme Terrain
The prototype trailed engineers for 37 hours and reached speeds up to 0.6 mph, advancing autonomy for future Moon and Mars missions.
- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently tested the Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain , a 4-foot-long rover that traveled 16 miles across the Colorado Desert in 37 hours for future Moon and Mars missions.
- Unlike the passive rocker-bogie suspension used on previous Mars rovers, ERNEST features an active suspension system allowing it to lift individual wheels and perform gaits including "squirming" to navigate rugged terrain.
- Clocking speeds up to 0.6 mph, ERNEST moves an order of magnitude faster than current rovers, utilizing artificial intelligence learned through thousands of hours of virtual simulation to navigate independently.
- JPL principal technologist Hari Nayar and lead tester Issa Nesnas noted the technology could enable exploration of currently inaccessible areas, including steep crater walls and lunar south pole regions where sunlight is intermittent.
- Although ERNEST remains a prototype without a specific flight mission announced, this technology demonstrates a fundamental shift in robotic exploration, potentially allowing future missions to cover greater distances during limited operational windows.
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NASA's new rover prototype drove 16 miles in a week, 10 times faster than anything it has on Mars
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has built a rover prototype that covered 16 miles in 37 hours of driving, making it roughly 10 times faster than any rover the agency currently operates on Mars. The four-wheeled machine, called ERNEST, reached speeds of up to 0.6mph during a field test in California’s Colorado Desert in March 2026. […] This story continues at The Next Web
NASA’s new prototype rover navigates 16-miles in extreme terrain
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has developed a 4-foot-long, four-wheeled prototype designed for high-speed, long-distance autonomous exploration on the Moon and Mars. Dubbed Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain (ERNEST), it underwent field tests in the Colorado Desert. The robotic rover successfully traveled 16 miles over 37 hours with minimal human intervention. “This testing is helping us refine the mobility hardwar…
NASA's ERNEST Rover Drives 16 Miles in a Moon Rehearsal
Archyde The four-wheeled prototype lifts its mesh wheels over obstacles that stop Curiosity and Perseverance, and it taught itself to drive with reinforcement learning. The post NASA’s ERNEST Rover Drove Itself 16 Miles to Rehearse for the Moon appeared first on Archyde.
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