Andreas with Haptics

ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen trying the Haptics joystick at ESA's technical heart ESTEC in the Netherlands.

Andreas will use a joystick on the Station that is a twin of one on Earth and moving either makes its copy move in the same way. This allows astronauts in space to ‘feel’ objects from hundreds of kilometres away and provides feedback so both users can feel the force of the other pushing or pulling.

As the Space Station travels at 28 800 km/h, the time for each signal to reach its destination changes continuously, but the system automatically adjusts to varying time delays.