Science

ISS astronauts to test remote controlled rovers

Moon and Mars rovers could someday be controlled from orbit.

Rae Hodge Former senior editor

Rae Hodge was a senior editor at CNET. She led CNET's coverage of privacy and cybersecurity tools from July 2019 to January 2023. As a data-driven investigative journalist on the software and services team, she reviewed VPNs, password managers, antivirus software, anti-surveillance methods and ethics in tech. Prior to joining CNET in 2019, Rae spent nearly a decade covering politics and protests for the AP, NPR, the BBC and other local and international outlets.

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Rae Hodge

Nov. 13, 2019 11:30 a.m. PT

nasa-remote-control-robot — The Analog-1 Interact rover located near the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands is controlled by a surrogate astronaut based at the European Astronaut Center in Germany. The cones mark out a route that the rover has to follow to get to the sample site.
European Space Agency

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station will get their shot this month at remotely piloting a lunar rover on Earth, according to NASA. The test is the final step in an ongoing project to develop future remote rover piloting on both the moon and Mars by astronauts in orbit.

Currently, rovers are controlled by preprogrammed software that responds to commands sent from Earth by scientists, a process that involves lengthy delays. Researchers are looking for a better scientific return on rover missions.

"This is a potential scientific scenario during future missions to the Moon and Mars," European Space Agency scientist William Carey, a principal investigator for the experiment, said in a NASA release. "Space is such a harsh place for humans and machines. Future exploration of the solar system may involve sending robotic explorers to test the waters on uncharted planets before sending humans."

This month's experiment will last two hours, while ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano attempts to control a lunar rover from an orbiting workstation in the ISS with a sensory-feedback joystick. Ground communications will assist Parmitano as he navigates the rover over moonlike terrain near the town of Noordwijk in the Netherlands.

NASA said the results will be particularly valuable as the organization looks to explore the moon during its moon-to-Mars Artemis program.