Why go to Mars when you can telecommute there instead?

At first, it was surprising to hear the whir of a robot and see a smiling face roll by. Over the past 40 years, telepresence technologies have gone from being complicated, huge, or non-existent to being so ubiquitous and powerful that they're used everywhere from operating rooms to your phone. So, why not send them to space? That's the argument put forward in an article published today in Science Robotics. As people discuss the best ways to explore other planets, some wonder if it's even necessary to send people to the ground--why not just send a robot avatar instead, and basically Skype with Mars? Dan Lester, one of the authors of the paper, says that this is one idea whose time has finally come.