British astronaut drives vehicle on earth from space

British astronaut Tim Peake has succeeded in an experiment in space to prepare for human-robotic missions to Mars and beyond.

Peake, aboard the International Space Station, successfully controlled a British-built robotic rover vehicle from space, the UK Space Agency said Friday.

The astronaut was at the controls thousands of kilometers away, with the Mars rover was positioned in a test facility in Stevenage, England where a mock-up of the surface of Mars had been especially created.

As part of the Meteron project, the mock-Mars environment in England was used to successfully test drive the locomotion and navigation systems for a Mars rover vehicle.

The experiment will provide valuable data to assess the benefits of human involvement in controlling a rover vehicle on the so-called red planet.

A UK Space Agency spokesman said: "With the future exploration of the Solar System being both a human and robotic endeavor, the purpose of the Meteron program is to prepare for missions that are likely to involve astronauts orbiting the planet and controlling or supervising rovers on its surface."

"The advantage of this method is that it will cut out the time delay due to distance experienced when controlling rovers from earth and allow more direct intervention from humans when needed, for example to navigate around hazards or identify targets," the spokesman added.

During this week's experiment, a representative mission scenario was set up in which a rover was commanded to go from a lit environment into a challenging dark location, simulating a cave or a shaded crater.

The mock-up Mars in Stevenage (30 metres by 13 metres) was split into two areas, one lit and one in the dark.

At the edge of the "cave", control was passed to astronaut Peake, who from space controlled Bridget to drive across the mock-up Mars, avoiding obstacles and identifying potential science targets.