Purpose
MARSTRACE explores a small, inspectable foundation for autonomous science collection with limited energy. This first implementation is a deterministic synthetic grid rover with explicit public observations, a public-map planning baseline and an authoritative receipt for every accepted action.
Method and mission
A seeded generator creates a 7×7 four-neighbor map with hidden static obstacles and science targets. The rover starts at base with 60 integer battery ticks. MOVE costs 1, SCAN costs 2, COLLECT costs 2 and STOP costs 0. Nearby cells are disclosed through an allowlisted observation. Science is collected once per physical target. Return success requires physical movement back to base followed by STOP; score is zero when stopping away from base.
The Dijkstra baseline builds a map solely from permitted public observations. It selects reachable visible targets and exploration frontiers while retaining a known return reserve. It does not obtain the hidden full map or generator seed. Every proposed action carries an ID and state version. Invalid, stale, conflicting or unaffordable proposals leave authoritative state and accepted receipts unchanged. Process-local retries of an identical accepted proposal return its original receipt.
What can be inspected
The Basalt viewer replays three generated baseline episodes and a fixed real-engine instrument checkout. Its six-wheel graphite/titanium rover adapts the owner's design. Accepted positions set body travel, headings and wheel rotation; accepted SCAN/COLLECT receipts drive mast and arm presentation; recorded battery, targets and STOP-at-base determine indicators and completion. Follow/orbit and keyboard camera controls are included. A 2D map preserves playback when WebGL is unavailable or lost. Locally packaged Three.js needs no CDN. The instrument checkout uses scripted commands executed by the real engine; it is not a planner-performance experiment. Unknown cells remain unknown until observed. Battery, science and position come from public receipts; the trace hash is stable across playback and restart. Raw traces are included alongside build provenance. The source package supplies strict TypeScript, deterministic replay, an independent accounting checker and Node built-in tests. A static viewer never imports the engine or planner.
Executed evidence and its scope
Core engineering tests cover hidden-world twins, observation isolation, seeded repeatability, canonical replay, independent energy/science accounting, stale and duplicate IDs, repeated collection, exhausted MOVE/SCAN/COLLECT rejection, failed movement and physical return. A bounded 30-seed × 6-battery baseline fixture set checks return reserves. Read the included executed verification record; exact release package hashes and extraction outcomes are recorded in the accompanying implementation handoff. This is fixture-based engineering evidence, not a held-out scientific comparison.
Limitations and unrun research
H1/H2 adaptive-planner improvements are NOT_RUN. There is no adaptive candidate, real Mars dataset, terrain-cost uncertainty, hardware-in-the-loop test, distributed agent system, flight qualification or crash-safe durable execution. Static unit movement costs and observations are synthetic assumptions. Disconnected targets can be unreachable. An independent trace checker validates ledger consistency; it does not certify real-world physics or the authenticity of an externally supplied trace.
The browser presents recorded missions, not an interactive rover controller. Geometry, suspension flex, the scan cone and tool poses are illustrative; terrain height, traction and arm dynamics are not simulated. Three tubes display the first three samples; the Samples counter is exact. EASY/MEDIUM/HARD calibration is deferred. Human review, public hosting, portal compatibility and final submission remain pending. Localhost is not a public judge link. No final submission receipt is claimed.
Reproduce and review
The browser ZIP needs an ordinary HTTP server, with no Node dependencies. Open its root index.html through that server. The full prototype ZIP also includes prebuilt output, source, the frozen mission contract, commands and a pinned TypeScript lockfile. For source verification use Node 22, npm ci --ignore-scripts --no-audit --no-fund, then npm test. The seeded CLI writes public traces and independently scored summaries.
Provenance
Created 14 October 2026 under human-approved bounded Branch C scope. Code was generated and reviewed with Codex. Research-audited design notes informed contracts and adversarial checks; their known-defective Python/JavaScript toy implementations were not copied or counted as application evidence. No third-party imagery, audio, private credentials or remote runtime AI is included.