The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 22 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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Perspectives virtual reality hardware for use on the International Space Station.
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will be the first astronaut to use the Perspectives virtual reality gear in space and take part in the Grasp experiment.
Living in space requires adaptation from more than just the astronaut’s body. The absence of a traditional up or down requires the brain to adapt to the three-dimensional world of weightlessness.
Virtual reality headsets offer a way to understand how an astronaut brain adapts to its new environment and the Grasp experiment will use a new headset supplied by France’s space agency CNES. Grasp will see Thomas reaching for virtual objects so researchers can understand how important gravity is compared to the other senses when we reach for an object.
The research will help us understand the workings of the human vestibular system and how it connects to the other sensory organs. In other words it will achieve a better understanding of the physiology behind eye-hand coordination as well as shedding light on how to best treat the loss of vestibular function on Earth. This research will also be useful in helping astronauts during spacewalks .