The rovers were built by a team led by Alexander Kemurdzhian; they were small, rectangular devices that were tethered to the lander and used skis for movement.

Two small metal rods were used for autonomous obstacle avoidance because radio signals from Earth would have taken too long to drive the rovers using remote control.

[4][5] After landing, the rovers were planned to be placed on the Martian surface by a 6-joint manipulator arm and to move in the field of view of the lander's cameras.

[3][1][2] The rovers' main chassis was a 4.5-kilogram (9.9 lb) square box with a small protrusion at the center.

The rover missions were secret[6][13] and were not mentioned in official news reports about the landings; their existence was revealed almost 20 years later in 1990.