Bharath Babu C L

Communication delays between Earth and Mars can make rover navigation challenging. Since signals can take up to 40 minutes to travel back and forth, scientists cannot guide every movement in real time. They often spend hours studying the terrain and identifying hazards before sending a single driving command. RoverMind aims to make this process faster and more autonomous. It uses Meta SAM 3.1 to identify potential hazards in terrain images and Meta Muse Spark to support navigation decisions. The system then converts the terrain data into cost maps and uses an 8-way Octile A* algorithm to find efficient paths around obstacles. With path calculations taking less than 15 milliseconds, RoverMind could help rovers navigate more independently, reduce the time spent planning each drive, and give scientists more time to focus on exploration and research.