Space Station Live: Controlling a Robot on Earth From Space

Public Affairs Officer Lori Meggs speaks with Payload Developer Maria Bualat about the Surface Telerobotics experiment. From onboard the International Space Station a crew member tests remotely operating a robot on Earth.

Read more about Surface Telerobotics...

Results from the study may enable future crew members orbiting Mars or the moon to operate an exploration rover on the surface. Meanwhile, scientists are learning how to deal with technological hurdles such as communication, usability and situational awareness. Scientists also want to understand how a crew member controls and determines what the robot is doing.

Researchers are using a small robot at Ames Research Center with familiar technologies from previous analog missions in places such as Antarctica and the deserts of California and Arizona. The new technology is actually the crew interface with the robot since the hardware is on the ground and the software is orbiting the Earth on the space station.

Watch the full Space Station Live broadcast weekdays on NASA TV at 10 a.m. CDT.

For more information on science and operations aboard the station, visit...