The Nitinol Actuated Autonomous Rover (NAAR) team is committed to developing a novel mode of locomotion utilizing nitinol linear actuators and anisotropic treads, enabling a Martian rover to be powered solely by Mars’ thermal gradient of the day cycle. Nitinol is a revolutionary shape memory alloy that can be freely deformed and returns to its original shape when the activation temperature is reached. Utilizing this unique alloy, the NAAR team seeks to create a small, compact, cost-efficient rover that can be deployed in a large fleet to passively traverse and analyze the vast expanses of Mars’ terrain.