Planning a Mission to Mars? Airbus Are Using the Steam Deck as Their Rover Controller of Choice

As spotted by the eagle-eyed folks over at Tom's Hardware, prolific science-tuber Tom Scott (no relation, presumably) went on a trip to Airbus' research and testing labs in Stevenage recently to check out their ExoMars experimental platform. And while it was very cool that he got to study the inner workings of their upcoming Mars rover, they also observed that the interplanetary exploration vehicle had a manual control mode, and the input device? A humble Steam Deck.

Just at a glance, it seems a very reasonable choice, hardware-wise. Much as we might think of it as that cute little gaming system that runs your favourite indie stuff, the Steam Deck is a full-blooded, quite capably specced PC with a lot of good input options, a touch-screen, gyro sensors, two touch-pads and many buttons. It also runs on Linux, making it a remarkably stable software platform for experimental purposes. I can't help but wonder whether the system could be repurposed for other tasks, and would probably clock in at far cheaper than most dedicated industrial input devices.

It also makes me wonder whether the Steam Frame (again, a Linux PC under the hood, delivered in the form-factor of a lightweight, wireless VR headset) might be a good interface for stuff like camera drones, especially if head and eye-tracking can be factored into navigation. It would be nice to see it on civilian hardware at the very least. Last thing I want to see is PC gaming hardware finding military applications.

There's certainly worse options, too. While it's not unheard of for companies to use off-the-shelf PC and gaming hardware for their high-stakes missions, the track record has been a little spotty. A few months ago, the Artemis II space mission required someone to use Remote Assistance to clear up Microsoft Outlook malfunctioning on the spacecraft's internal computers. And while the controller wasn't directly at fault, it is utterly terrifying that the Oceangate submarine that infamously imploded on a trip to visit the Titanic (with a small country's GDP worth of billionaires on board) was controlled with a cheap Logitech-brand third-party Xbox controller.

The only real wrinkle in this story for us is that the price of Steam Decks is creeping ever upwards thanks to AI-inflicted global RAM shortages. Even the cheapest model available clocks in at a hefty £649 these days. Still, cheaper than your average space-rover, I'd reckon. Airbus can probably afford a few replacements.