Rock sampling from space – Analog-1

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ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano made robotics history, reaching out from the International Space Station in orbit around Earth at 8 km/s, to control an Earth-based rover, equipped with an advanced gripper possessing the equivalent mobility and dexterity of a human hand. This gripper was able to pick up and collect rock samples from the mock-lunar environment. In the future a comparable system may well be used to explore alien environments, with astronauts controlling surface rovers from the safety and comfort of a surface habitat or an orbiting spacecraft. The Analog-1 test project, which concluded with this two-hour space-to-ground test on 25 November, had multiple technical goals. High among them was to assess the use of ‘force-feedback’ controls – like a high-end gaming joystick pushing back on their user, giving them a sense of touch – in space, to evaluate if this technology would enable high-precision robotic control in weightless conditions. “Imagine the robot as Luca’s avatar on Earth, providing him with both vision and touch,” says ESA engineer Kjetil Wormnes, heading the Analog-1 test campaign. “It was equipped with two cameras – one in the palm of its hand, the other in a manoeuvrable arm – to let Luca and the remotely-located scientists observe the environment and get a close-up on the rocks.” As journalists watched, the Luca-controlled rover completed its sampling campaign right on schedule, traversing between a trio of sampling sites along challengingly na

Published 2019-12-01 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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