NASA's Perseverance rover now has its own 'GPS' on Mars: 'We've given the rover a new ability'

Perseverance in the foreground with the tracks it made on Mars behind it.

NASA has given its Perseverance Mars rover a powerful new ability to determine its exact location on the Red Planet without waiting for instructions from Earth, effectively giving the six-wheeled explorer its own version of GPS.

Unlike on Earth, Mars has no network of navigation satellites. Instead, robotic missions including Perseverance have long depended on onboard sensors and cameras, imagery from orbiting spacecraft and guidance from mission teams millions of miles away to figure out precisely where they are.