Water and a solid planetary surface are considered essential prerequisites for life - at least of the sort that we understand.

The planetary surface undergoes reshaping over geological time periods due to tectonics and erosion.

Forests cover most of the planetary surface, growing up the sides of immense mountains and inside the deep valleys.

Rovers are generally capable mobile platforms, but they are incapable of exploring multiple distant sites on a planetary surface.

In a planetary simulation work we use testfields which are analog to a selected planetary surface.