<P> A rover (or sometimes planetary rover) is a space exploration vehicle designed to move across the surface of a planet or other celestial body . Some rovers have been designed to transport members of a human spaceflight crew; others have been partially or fully autonomous robots . Rovers usually arrive at the planetary surface on a lander - style spacecraft . Rovers are created to land on another planet, besides Earth, to find out information and to take samples . They can collect dust, rocks, and even take pictures . They are very useful for exploring the universe . </P> <P> Rovers have several advantages over stationary landers: they examine more territory and they can be directed to interesting features . If they are solar powered, they can place themselves in sunny positions to weather winter months . They can also advance the knowledge of how to perform very remote robotic vehicle control which is necessarily semi-autonomous due to the finite speed of light . </P>

A wheeled robot used for exploring the surface of a celestial body is called