What operational constraint does the speed of light delay impose on rover control?

Every action taken by the rover must be pre-planned, sequenced, and uploaded as a block of instructions.

The physical reality of the vast distance between Earth and Mars results in a communication latency, which can be up to 22 minutes one way. This delay makes real-time remote control of the rover absolutely impossible, as there is no immediate feedback loop for adjustments. Consequently, the entire operational day must be structured around batch processing. Ground controllers cannot issue sequential commands like 'drive forward one meter, stop, analyze rock.' Instead, they must develop comprehensive sequences containing numerous steps, upload this entire block of instructions to the rover, and then wait up to 44 minutes for confirmation that the sequence was successfully received and executed, necessitating careful, forward-looking scheduling.