Curiosity's Survival Playbook Now Shapes Next-Generation Mars Operations

After 13 years on Mars, Curiosity's engineers are codifying power-aware scheduling and autonomous navigation techniques refined through continuous degradation. The knowledge developed here—how to extract maximum science from declining energy budgets—is already informing operations for Perseverance and feeding design assumptions for future landed assets. This represents a shift in how NASA treats its oldest rovers: not as single-mission platforms, but as testbeds for operational doctrine.