When NASA astronaut Jonny Kim took control of four robots from space this summer, he reactivated a dormant passion of his: video games.<\/p>\n
Kim is on board the International Space Station<\/a> right now and recently participated in a tech demonstration that saw him virtually explore a Mars<\/a>-like landscape alongside the robotic quartet, who were all roaming a German space agency (DLR) facility near Munich.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On X, Kim shared the Surface Avatar series<\/a> in which he participated was one of the most fun demos he’s done during his six-month ISS mission, in part because it reminded him of challenging himself against virtual characters and environments.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n “Growing up, I played a lot of video games \u2014 and while I still enjoy gaming with my kids, time is scarcer these days,” Kim wrote on Aug. 27<\/a>. “This demo brought me right back, blending elements of real-time strategy, RPGs [role-playing games], and first-person play into something very real.”<\/p>\n One of the most fun technology demonstrations I took part in during this mission was with a global team exploring how remote robotic operations could support future missions on other worlds. Growing up, I played a lot of video games\u2014and while I still enjoy gaming with my kids,\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/zjuvAzCJ54August 27, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Kim, 41, is old enough to remember some of what the industry now calls the “golden age of video games” in the 1970s and 1980s \u2014 a time when malls across America had amusement arcades, and the first consoles began popping up in households that could afford them.<\/p>\n Pac-Man, Mario, Tetris, The Legend of Zelda and Sonic the Hedgehog are just some of the breakout franchises from this era\u2014which also saw a few big flops, such as Atari’s infamous E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Another big boom came in the 1990s, however, with the PC and Mac gaming era growing fast alongside a new set of consoles.<\/p>\n Kim didn’t discuss which games he plays or used to play, but he’s definitely interested: his official NASA<\/a> biography literally mentions “video games” as a hobby<\/a>. The former Navy SEAL is likely a fan of the first-person shooter and strategy series Halo, however, as he told the Annals of Emergency Medicine in 2018<\/a> that he was then reading a book based on 2010’s Halo: Reach.<\/p>\n On X, Kim noted that controlling the Martian-like robots was much like the “fog of war” that one encounters in strategy games, especially because he could see a mini-map in orbit that matched each of the robot’s perspectives.<\/p>\n “The setup was awesome,” he said. “A joystick and advanced robotic arm controller let me mimic finger and wrist movements with precision. A heads-up display kept me informed with battery levels, location data, and quick access to either an AI assistant or ground teams.”<\/p>\n The four robots Kim drove included two from DLR\u2014humanoid Rollin’ Justin, and a four-legged machine called Bert\u2014and two from the European Space Agency<\/a>, which were the Interact rover and another four-legged helper dubbed Spot.<\/p>\n Kim said he most enjoyed working with both Interact and with Bert, who maneuvered into a “cave” with mock drawings that looked like prehistoric art from the Lascaux caves in France. Bert’s ability to “crawl into tight spaces like caves [was] a feature that felt straight out of a game, but with real scientific potential,” Kim noted.<\/p>\n The Expedition 72-73 crew launched in April, which means Kim should be coming home in about November. Apparently, Kim’s kids can’t wait for him to arrive, because having him in space presents a big drawback: “My son’s just asking me when I can play video games with him again,” he told NPR in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n