Astronauts in their future missions to moon or Mars may be able to pilot a spacecraft using their thoughts alone, scientists say.
Researchers led by Riccardo Poli, a computer science professor at the University of Essex, have for the first time used a brain-computer interface (BCI) to control a spacecraft simulator.
However, the researchers admit that the experiment was carried in a highly simplified environment.
Working in zero gravity and trying to accomplish tasks while wearing a bulky spacesuit is challenging for astronauts in space, Discovery News reported.
The lack of gravity slows down a person’s motor skills. It is not easy to operate equipment while wearing gloves and a helmet or other cumbersome gear. The scientists discovered that their BCI was far more effective when two people were hooked up to it and had to collaborate on a task in space.
That kind of enhanced decision-making ability, while good in space, could be applied to a number of high-stress situations on earth. The team set up at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and began by putting a cap containing 66 electrodes on a human subject. This has the advantage of being a non-invasive way to pick up brain signals, but Poli said that trying to read EEG signals from the scalp is like trying to listen to a concert hall by standing in the street outside the venue. To help amplify the brain signals, the team used a computer that generated special visual stimuli on a screen. This helped the human subject produce brain signals that could be analysed a little more easily. Scientists made a simulation and presented their subject with a challenge: Steer a spaceship so that it passes within a certain distance from the sun.