By Nick Heath, From TechRepublic

Photos of tech headed to the cosmos

The European Space Agency researches technologies that will allow humans to learn more about space and eventually explore new worlds.

That research relies on cutting-edge advances in fields such as robotics, laser-based communications and 3D printing. Here’s what the agency and its partners have been cooking up in their labs.

Eurobot

This car-sized rover is Eurobot, which will be remote controlled by ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen during his 10-day flight to the International Space Station in September.

From 400km above the rover, Mogensen will issue commands to move the rover and simulate tasks on other planets, such as moving boxes and unfurling solar arrays. He will also control a second rover, which will beam video to the station so Andreas can monitor Eurobot.

In the future astronauts could use similar technology to control robots on planets from orbit, setting up bases or performing scientific research.

Shadow Hand

Fancy controlling a robot hand in space? ESA is sourcing technologies to allow humans to control distant robotic limbs as if they were part of their body.

Shadow Hand reproduces the motion of its human operator and incorporates a force-feedback sense of touch and pressure to allow it to precisely grip and manipulate objects.

Image: ESA

Telerobotics exoskeleton

In a similar vein to Shadow Hand, this lightweight, 10kg, exoskeleton allows the wearer to control a robot. The users’ actions can be transmitted more than 400km to a robotic arm, which will replicate the wearer’s movements.

Image: ESA-A. Le Floc’h

Picasso CubeSat

Tiny cubesats can make it into orbit at a fraction of $500m it can cost to put a large satellite in space.

Just 30x10x10 cm in size, the PICosatellite for Atmospheric and Space Science Observations (Picasso) cubesat will investigate the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere.

Picasso will measure the distribution of ozone in the stratosphere and profile the temperature of the mesosphere and the electron density in the ionosphere.

When it launches next year, Picasso will be part of a network of 50 cubesats probing largely unexplored layers of Earth’s atmosphere.

Image: BISA

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