New Smart Glove For Astronauts May One Day Explore The Moon And Mars

As the United States gears up to return to the moon in preparation for a trip to Mars in the future, scientists and researchers all around the world are working on new technology that will help humans make that trip. One piece of the new tech is from NTNU students who have developed a new smart glove for astronauts that can be used while exploring other planets.

NASA partners recently conducted successful testing of the glove at the Haughton Mars Project research station. The glove is described as a ground-breaking device for human exploration of the moon and Mars. The gloves use a human-machine interface that allows communication with machines using the body. The gloves allow astronauts to control drones or other robots with hand gestures.

The glove was tested at the NASA Haughton Mars Project (HMP) research facility on the uninhabited Devon Island in the Arctic. The place is often called Mars on Earth because of its harsh Arctic climate. It's one of the most Mars-like places on the planet. The glove tested there promises good finger dexterity for the wearer.

Gloves for spacesuits are typically resistant to movement, and the resistance makes it difficult to control robots and collect samples. These smart gloves could help to address that limitation. The gloves have adjustable sensitivity to allow the sensitivity of hand motions to be set to high.

The glove has a microcontroller inside that can read different sensors. Those sensors can capture subtle motions of the hand and fingers and then wirelessly transfer them to a mobile device that controls the drone or other robots. Testing showed how the astronaut could perform several tasks using the smart glove and AR goggles.