Curiosity's 13-Year Survival Teaches NASA How to Run Rovers Longer

Curiosity's engineers have turned decades of survival on Mars into a playbook. They're refining power management and self-driving techniques as the rover's systems degrade, then applying those lessons to Perseverance and future missions. NASA is shifting from treating rovers as single-shot experiments to using them as living labs—learning how to extract maximum science from dwindling energy budgets.