Interact brings samples to lander

In a complex role-played version of a mission to the Moon, controllers at ESOC combined with a team of geological scientists and ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter to oversee a rover’s collection of rock samples. Behaving as if he were in lunar orbit, the astronaut was in fact  working from a hotel room in Catania, Sicily, with the rover 23 km away and 2 600 m uphill on the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna. As Thomas commanded the rover to pick up rocks his hand experienced just what the robot’s gripper felt – representing an added dimension in remote control.