This article on Space.com talks about a beachball or tumbleweed type martian rover whose only means of locomotion is the martian wind. To change directions, the ball partially deflates to anchor itself until the wind changes. It then reinflates itself to travel in the new wind direction. Instruments are tethered to the center of the sphere. So which show does this remind me of? Remember The Prisoner? Well there might be a movie remake of it!