Mars is the only planet we know of that is home to robots and no people. As of November 2026, NASA has sent five robot rovers to Mars. They are Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance. Sojourner was a small rover. It landed on Mars in 1997 and weighed 23 pounds, or 10.6 kilograms. It traveled about 330 feet, or 100 meters, over 83 days. The Pathfinder mission returned more than 16,500 pictures from its lander and 550 from the rover. The Opportunity rover last communicated with Earth on June 10, 2018. A planet-wide dust storm covered the solar-powered rover on Mars.

The Curiosity rover is about as big as a car and as tall as a basketball player. It weighs 1,982 pounds on Earth but only 743 pounds in Mars gravity, because gravity on Mars is weaker. It carries 17 cameras, a laser that vaporizes tiny spots of rock, and a drill that collects powdered rock. Curiosity launched in 2011. As of November 2026, it has explored Gale Crater on Mars since 2012 and has drilled 42 holes in Martian rock to collect powdered samples. The drill is on the end of its robotic arm. A Mars rover drives to different spots and uses a robot arm to hold tools up to rocks it wants to study.

The Perseverance rover is searching Mars for signs of ancient tiny living things. As of November 2026, it collects core samples of Martian rock and soil that a future mission could bring to Earth. Perseverance launched on July 30, 2020, and landed in Jezero Crater on Mars in February 2021. It can drive itself. Its AutoNav system makes 3D maps of the ground ahead, spots hazards and plans a route around obstacles without waiting for directions from Earth. With AutoNav, Perseverance might reach a top speed of 393 feet, or 120 meters, an hour, compared with about 66 feet, or 20 meters, an hour for Curiosity. Even so, it cannot get by on AutoNav alone. The rover team on Earth is still part of its driving.

On April 19, 2021, a small robot helicopter named Ingenuity became the first aircraft to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. It was built to make five test flights in 30 days, but it flew 72 times over nearly three years. In all, Ingenuity flew for 128.8 minutes and 10.5 miles, or 17.0 kilometers, and reached 78.7 feet, or 24.0 meters, high. After its test flights it became an aerial scout. It helped scientists and rover planners see areas of Mars the Perseverance rover might explore. Its mission ended in January 2024. Images and data showed that one or more of its carbon fiber rotor blades was damaged while landing on its final flight.

Robots work in orbit too. The Canadarm, a remote manipulator arm used on NASA's space shuttle, is an example of a well-known robot. Canadarm2 can grab spaceships that bring food, spare parts and science experiments to the space station. In April 2026 an astronaut used Canadarm2 to capture the Cygnus XL cargo ship when it was 12 meters from the station. As of November 2026, Dragon cargo ships dock with the station by themselves, while the Cygnus and HTV-X ships are caught by Canadarm2. In 2011 a humanoid robot, Robonaut, launched to the International Space Station. It was the first humanoid robot in space.

Words to know

• rover: wheeled robot
• AutoNav: self-driving system
• Pathfinder: Mars mission
• aerial: from the air
• Robonaut: space humanoid robot