NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) developed a mini version of the Mars Curiosity Rover, and open sourced the design and software used. The source is hosted at the agency’s Github account.
The project uses mostly consumer off-the-shelf parts. One of them is a Raspberry Pi, used as the “brain” of the rover.
From the Github repo:
JPL is always looking to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, and roboticists to help us explore and learn about our solar system (and beyond!). We release the plans for this rover as a way to try and give budding enthusiasts a fun robotics project that will help teach them and get them involved in robotics sooner and at a lower cost.
If you were looking for your next DIY project, look no more.