Astronauts Test ESA's 'Google Glass' Underwater

Imagine going out on a spacewalk, with a very important mission in mind, when suddenly you can't remember what you're supposed to do next. It happens to the best of us, even among the highly trained, but it can make for potentially dangerous situations in space.

That's why the European Space Agency (ESA) has developed a hands free device that will allow their astronauts to consult audio manuals, videos, and ground control on demand inside their spacesuits and while floating around the International Space Station (ISS).

Just yesterday, ESA astronaut Adreas Mogensen was testing a prototype of the mobile procedure viewer, or mobiPV, while undergoing underwater training for his ISS mission next year.

According to the ESA, the wearable mobiPV is actually a lot like tablets and the Google Glass., allowing for astronauts to improve their task performance by eliminating a need to pause to consult instructions or mission control.

As an added bonus, "a ground controller will don a ground version of mobiPV linked to the one aboard the International Space Station, seeing exactly what the astronaut sees," said the ESA's Mikael Wolff.

The ESA's lead engineer, David Martinez Oliveriera, added in a statement that "the aim is to enable collaboration with the ground team as though they are looking over the astronaut's shoulder, allowing work to be supported step by step by experts in ground control."

Mogensen and his colleagues were asked to test the mobiPV in the Aquarius habitat for astronaut training so that they could both test the device's limitations and become better suited to using them.

The Aquarius, located 20 meters (65 feet) below the sea surface just off the coast of Florida, is traditionally where NASA holds its own underwater training missions, conducting "waterwalks" in space gear to prepare for difficult future missions.

A great deal of potentially game-changing equipment is put through a gauntlet of testing at this underwater laboratory, and the mobiPV is no exception.