METERON Analog-1: A Touch Remote

The METERON project (Multipurpose End-To-End Robotics Operations Network) was implemented by the European Space Agency as an initiative to prepare Europe for future human-robotic exploration scenarios that in particular, focused on examination of the human-robotic partnership, and how this partnership could be optimized through an evaluation of the tools and methodologies utilized in the experiments in the domains of operations, communications and robotics (specifically with respect to control strategies). Implemented through series of experiments of gradually increasing complexity, the project was originally conceived to culminate in the control of a rover-robot located at a terrestrial analogue site. Being operated by a geology-trained astronaut from the International Space Station (ISS), such a test would enable a reasonably high-fidelity examination of how crew on an orbiting vehicle around the Moon or Mars could remotely perform exploration tasks in an unstructured environment.