Although research on presence in virtual environments has increased in the last few decades due to the rise of immersive technologies, it has not examined how it is achieved in distributed cognitive systems. To this end, we examine the sense of presence on the Martian landscape experienced by scientific team members in the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission (2004–2018). How this was achieved is not obvious because the sensorimotor coupling that typically underlies presence in mundane situations was absent. Nonetheless, we argue that the Three-Level model can provide a framework for exploring how presence was achieved. This account distinguishes between proto-presence, core-presence, and extended-presence, each level dependent on being able to respond effectively to affordances at a particular level of abstraction, operating at different timescales. We maintain that scientists' sense of presence on Mars involved core-presence and extended-presence rather than proto-presence. Extended-presence involved successfully establishing distal intentions (D-intentions) during strategic planning, i.e., long term conceptual goals. Core-presence involved successfully enacting proximal intentions (P-intentions) during tactical planning by carrying out specific actions on a particular target, abstracting away from sensorimotor details. This was made possible by team members “becoming the rover,” which enhanced their ability to identify relevant affordances revealed through images. We argue, however, that because Mars exploration is a collective activity involving shared agency by a distributed cognitive system, the experience of presence was a collective presence of the team through the rover.

尽管由于沉浸式技术的兴起，在过去几十年中对虚拟环境中存在的研究有所增加，但尚未研究它是如何在分布式认知系统中实现的。为此，我们研究了科学团队成员在火星探索漫游者 (MER) 任务（2004-2018 年）中所经历的火星景观的存在感。这是如何实现的并不明显，因为通常情况下存在的感觉运动耦合不存在。尽管如此，我们认为三级模型可以提供一个框架来探索如何实现在场。这个帐户区分了原型存在、核心存在和扩展存在，每个级别取决于能够有效地响应特定抽象级别的可供性，运行在不同的时间尺度。我们认为科学家在火星上的存在感涉及核心存在和扩展存在，而不是原始存在。扩展存在涉及在战略规划期间成功建立远期意图（D 意图），即长期概念目标。核心存在涉及在战术规划过程中通过对特定目标执行特定动作，从感觉运动细节中抽象出来，成功地制定近端意图（P-意图）。团队成员“成为漫游者”使这成为可能，这增强了他们识别通过图像显示的相关可供性的能力。然而，我们认为，因为火星探索是一项涉及分布式认知系统共享代理的集体活动，