Nasa has shown off one of its new innovations for the future of space exploration, this one involving heavy use of technology made for the gaming market.

The demo comes from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (the Human Interfaces Group, to be specific), and can be seen in the video above.

Using an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, users can ‘see’ through a remote controlled robot arm, which is then manipulated using a Kinect motion tracking sensor just like the one that came with your Xbox One.

What this means is Nasa can operate robotic appendages from the safety of mission control here on earth, which will make carrying out repairs and maintenance on the International Space Station and its successors much safer in the future.

Sadly, it also means films like Gravity would be less likely to be made, as people would care less about George Clooney losing his grip on a robot than they would Sandra Bullock.

Probably.