A Mars rover is a remote-controlled motor vehicle designed to travel on the surface of Mars. Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory, they can be directed to interesting features, they can place themselves in sunny positions to weather winter months, and they can advance the knowledge of how to perform very remote robotic vehicle control. They serve a different purpose than orbital spacecraft like Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. A more recent development is the Mars helicopter.
NASA's Curiosity rover, selfie, 2015
Zhurong rover and lander captured by HiRISE from NASA's MRO on 6 June 2021
Sojourner disembarks Mars Pathfinder base station lander on the surface of planet Mars
Curiosity's (MSL) rover "hand" featuring a suite of instruments on a rotating "wrist". Mount Sharp is in the background (September 8, 2012).
Rover (space exploration)
A rover is a planetary surface exploration device designed to move over the rough surface of a planet or other planetary mass celestial bodies. Some rovers have been designed as land vehicles to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots. Rovers are typically created to land on another planet via a lander-style spacecraft, tasked to collect information about the terrain, and to take crust samples such as dust, soil, rocks, and even liquids. They are essential tools in space exploration.
Three different Mars rover designs: Sojourner, MER and Curiosity
Curiosity's wheels on Mars, 2017
Comparison of distances driven by various wheeled vehicles on the surface of the Moon and Mars
The Lunokhod 1 Lunar Rover