ERNEST rover tests mobility and autonomy for Moon and Mars

On a bleak stretch of the Colorado Desert, a compact four-wheeled prototype called ERNEST (Exploration Rover for Navigating Extreme Sloped Terrain) recently traveled about 16 miles (26 kilometers) with minimal intervention from its engineering team. Developed at JPL and about 4 feet (1.2 meters) long, ERNEST can lift each of its mesh wheels to traverse obstacles that would stop six-wheeled rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance, and it incorporates enhanced independent decision-making.

Engineers are using the rover as a testbed for potential long-range lunar missions that require higher speeds and much greater mileage. In a recent campaign ERNEST drove for 37 hours across seven days, reaching speeds up to 0.6 mph (1 kph) — an order of magnitude above the top speed at which current Mars rovers navigate — as the team refined mobility hardware and autonomy software for the Moon’s terrain and lighting conditions.

ernest, jpl, lunar rover, mars rover, autonomy, mobility, mesh wheels, colorado desert, curiosity, perseverance