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 23 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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The two-way communication system incorporating force feedback that astronaut Andreas Mogensen will be using to operate the Interact Centaur rover down on Earth and perform sub-millimetre precision ‘pin-in-hole’ experiment. As the astronaut moves his haptic joystick and support arm, the resulting signals travel from the ISS in 400 km altitude Earth orbit up to a constellation of
TDRSS satellites in geosynchronous orbit 36 000 km up, then down to a ground station in New Mexico, relayed in turn to NASA Houston and then via a trans-Atlantic fibre-optic cable to ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, ending up received by the rover. He then receives video and force feedback data in return. The signal must cover a long distance of nearly 90 000 km.The resulting two-way time delay approaches one second in length.