Not sure if this was suggested already, but if this is MSL inspired and if you want to get an idea for what the MSL people deal with both in terms of planning commands and movements and requiring a certain level of autonomy for the rover, then program/engineer into it a recieve buffer that allows ignoring for 14 minutes anything that comes in and a send buffer that allows 14 minute delay of anything sending out. That should all be effected on the rover itself so there's no way to cheat and switch to realtime at any time.
As for the autonomy, it could have minimal ability to avoid getting stuck. No need to go all out with that necessarily. It could have purely mechanical "sensors" instead of much more complex optical sensors.
That adds a lot of challenge to it, but then those of you involved in making this happen can only rely to an extent on what's already been done by RC hobbyists.
And even better, if it could be parachuted in to the location
Great idea