> construct bodies onsite at minimal cost
That requires a bit more than a receiver. You'd have to build a robot factory, which requires energy production which requires mining which requires heavy machinery, which etc.
Driving on Mars is incredibly slow in part because the signal has to get to and from us for every decision. And if communication is blocked for any reasons, the vehicle is stuck.
AI on Mars fixes both problems.
Curiosity and Perseverance have a limited form of autonomy to work around that, as both can AutoNav: the former alternating standstill thinking and movement, the latter "thinking while driving".
https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8980/nasas-self-driving-persevera...
What's seriously impressive about it is that it works in real time on an absolute brick of a 233 MHz PowerPC from the 90s. Like, an ESP32 probably outperforms it.
With the help of special 3D glasses, rover drivers on Earth plan routes with specific stops, but increasingly allow the rover to "take the wheel" and choose how it gets to those stops. Perseverance's auto-navigation system, known as AutoNav, makes 3D maps of the terrain ahead, identifies hazards, and plans a route around any obstacles without additional direction from controllers back on Earth. [1]
The mission has used AI not just for driving the rover, but also landing and targeting instruments. [2]
[1] https://phys.org/news/2022-04-nasa-self-driving-perseverance... [2] https://www.enterpriseai.news/2021/02/19/perseverance-rover-...
...in spite of this autonomy, Perseverence has a few major problems. It is famous for the severity of it's road rage and intolerance for human drivers, bicyclists, parked emergency vehicles, and pedestrians. Tests show a disturbing tendency toward "eliminating the human element" from it's driving environment to simplify route planning. The lengths the system will go to to achieve this were a major frustrator in early development, and initially attracting the interest of [REDACTION] for [REDACTION] due to [REDACTION] with an effective [THE REDACTION MACHINE IS BROKEN, FURTHER INQUIRIES SHOULD BE ROUTED THROUGH TOM].
Mission planners at NASA found the risk involved with deployment to the Red Planet agreeable, but note that any ongoing colonization efforts will involve having to put the system down for the safety of any eventual colonists.
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/16/world/ups-trucks-no-left-...