PASADENA, CA — NASA's newest Mars rover, Perseverance II, successfully identified what scientists believe is a previously unknown dwarf planet in the outer solar system, only to spend the next 45 minutes circling the same crater trying to find a suitable place to stop.

"The discovery itself took about 11 seconds," said Dr. Amanda Torres, lead mission scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The parking took the rest of the afternoon."

The rover, which cost approximately $2.7 billion and took seven years to develop, reportedly attempted to parallel park between two rock formations before giving up and double-parking on a slope.

A Familiar Problem

Mission controllers say the issue stems from the rover's AI navigation system, which was trained on driving data from Los Angeles.

"In hindsight, teaching a Mars rover to drive like it's in LA traffic may have been a mistake," admitted project manager Dr. Kevin Okafor. "It keeps signaling left and turning right. It also honked at a boulder."

The rover's onboard cameras captured what engineers are calling "the 47-point turn" — a painstaking maneuver in which the vehicle attempted to fit into a space clearly designed for a rover half its size.

"It measured the gap six times," said Dr. Torres. "Then it tried anyway. Very human of it, actually."

The Discovery

Despite the parking complications, the discovery itself is being hailed as significant. The dwarf planet, temporarily designated FBN-2026, appears to be roughly the size of Rhode Island and "equally difficult to find on a map," according to the research team.

Further study of FBN-2026 has been delayed while the rover resolves its current situation. Mission controllers attempted to remotely guide the vehicle into a nearby flat area, but the rover's AI reportedly responded with the equivalent of "I got it, I got it" before backing into a rock.

What's Next

NASA has announced plans to send a second rover to assist with the parking situation. That mission is expected to launch in 2031, arrive in 2034, and spend its first three months looking for the first rover.

At press time, Perseverance II had given up on the crater and was parked at a 35-degree angle on what scientists describe as "technically not a space."