Tim Peake, a British astronaut on the International Space Station, is about to undertake an unusual driving test: guiding a Mars rover around obstacles in a dark cave while he’s 249 miles above it in space.
Astronaut Tim Peake is about to drive a Mars rover from the space station. Here’s how to watch.
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The experiment is streaming live on the website of Airbus Defence and Space, which is headquartered in the UK. Peake is supposed to start around 10:20 am Eastern time, pending any last-minute changes.
The rover, developed by British scientists, isn’t actually on Mars today — it’s exploring the Mars Yard in Stevenage, about 30 miles north of London. The yard is a room filled with sand and designed to mimic the landscape of Mars.
Here’s the obstacle course the rover, named Bridget, will have to navigate:
Transmitting signals from Earth to the moon or Mars can be slow — it takes seven minutes for a signal to travel to Mars, plus seven more minutes to make sure the signal went through. Controlling a rover from space is one way of cutting down on those delays.
The experiment is also meant to test how humans and robots work together: Peake will have to figure out a route for the rover himself, making adjustments along the way. That’s important because it’s easier for humans to figure out and respond to the tricky terrain. A misstep could leave an expensive robot stuck on another planet forever.
This video from Airbus explains the experiment in a bit more detail:
Airbus says Peake and Bridget’s mission may also ultimately help astronauts prepare for future missions to the moon, perhaps even establishing a permanent base there, and to Mars.
