LAS VEGAS — NASA doesn’t make consumer electronics per say, but it does enough geeky stuff that it was right at home during last week’s CES.

Maria Bualat, a robotics engineer, was manning the NASA booth to show visitors a prototype robot the space agency uses to develop autonomy software.

Bualat and her team test out visual navigation software and other tools that autonomous robots will need in space on the robot in various deserts, (like the one home to CES). The robot has also been to the Canadian arctic, “basically a frozen desert,” says Bualat.

Some of the software tested on the robot will be used in NASA’s upcoming lunar mission.

The NASA booth also had a few mixed reality experiences, including a trip to Mars via the HoloLens headset. The VR demo featured real footage from the Curiosity Rover on Mars.

“You can actually walk around the robot and see exactly what the robot saw,” said Bualat.

Check out the video above for more.

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