NASA recently announced a challenge open to any team to successfully program a virtual Robonaut 5 robot to complete a series of complex tasks within a virtual Mars habitat. NASA, in a recent collaboration with Space Center Houston, the Official Visitor Center of NASA Johnson Space Center, and NineSigma, just opened registration for their most recent competition so called the'Space Robotics Challenge'. The event is specifically designed to help create a functional humanoid robot to assist astronauts on the journey to Mars. However, future applications of the robot could see it be used to complete dangerous activities back on Earth as well. "Precise and dexterous robotics, able to work with a communications delay, could be used in spaceflight and ground missions to Mars and elsewhere for hazardous and complicated tasks, which will be crucial to support our astronauts," Says Monsi Roman, program manager of NASA's Centennial Challenges.