Remote teleoperation earth to moon - An experiment

An experiment was performed to determine (to a first approximation) if the delay time inherent in earth-to-moon communication (i.e., 1.35 sec) is an insurmountable barrier to driving vehicles via teleoperation. A computer program was run on a system with real-time graphics that simulated driving a vehicle on the moon from an office on earth. Subjects viewed the terrain and vehicle from above rather than out the window; there was a three-second delay between the time subjects activated the controls and when they saw the resulting motion of the vehicle. Serious difficulties were encountered on only the most difficult of three mazes used (some of these difficulties may be attributable to deficiencies in the controls).