Last July, a team of robots explored a simulated martian landscape in Germany, guided by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station. This was the final session of the Surface Avatar experiment, a joint initiative between ESA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to investigate how astronauts can remotely control robotic teams.

This latest session took place at the DLR site in Oberpfaffenhofen and introduced new levels of autonomy, decision-making and realism, bringing Europe one step closer to seamless human-robot collaboration in space exploration.