Although the company would not fund the entire project, it would contribute substantially and give the project greater credibility. Follow on missions include the Apollo Grand Tour . These will use long range rovers to several of the Apollo and unmanned lunar probe landing sites. The rovers will be intelligent and aware of their surroundings so they can protect themselves from unsafe Earth commands. Teams of students remote contol the FIDO rovers on missions that simulate the actual Mars situations.
Webcams send realtime video while other instruments send various measurement data.
More FIDO information at About FIDO and JPL Exploration Technology Rover . The rover was recently field tested the Mojave Desert with participation of several students. The Planetary Society is developing this student project that will involve teams controlling Mars rovers. This should occur in the 2002 timeframe. The tag was impregnated with a small amount of moondust.