Removing anti-personnel mine in Afghanistan. Most humanitarian mine removal is still carried out in the same way as it was after World War II, by using manual probes, sniffer dogs and metal detectors. Such methods are dangerous, slow and labour intensive and no longer very efficient. The Handheld Operational Demining System (HOPE) project is part of the European Union’s efforts to support humanitarian demining operations. ESA assists these efforts under its Technology Transfer Programme, which supports the use of space technology in non-space fields. HOPE includes a ground penetration radar originally developed for space missions to other planets for the investigation of soil content and underground structures. Photo:University of Western Australia Demining Research Project