The hand-eye system is an important component of the Zhurong rover, which is crucial for positioning, terrain reconstruction, stereo vision measurement and mission planning functions. The hand-eye system consists of a navigation camera and mast mechanism, and its positioning accuracy has an important effect on the teleoperation mission of the Zhurong rover. A positioning method that combines close-range photogrammetry and robot kinematics is proposed. It includes geometric calibration, stereo vision measurement and coordinate transformations. Experiments were carried out in different scenes (for example, field, laboratory and Ó 2022 Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Mars) to verify the positioning accuracy of the hand-eye system. The minimum and maximum positioning errors of the hand-eye system, as verified by in-orbit checkpoints, were 16.5 and 28.7 mm, respectively. This positioning accuracy can effectively satisfy the requirements of the teleoperation mission of the Zhurong rover.