For space applications at a distance (Mars, for example), control from the Earth involves many minutes of delay that make teleoperation highly non-cognitive. As a teleoperator, it’s hard to feel like you’re really there, though Mars Exploration Rover operators have claimed to be able to do so at some level. But if humans could get close to the planetary surface, perhaps just in orbit above it, truly cognitive teleoperation could be achieved at multiple sites with high-quality virtual presence. This strategy, of space exploration by telepresence, was envisioned independently by Fred Singer and Marvin Minsky in the late 1970s, a time at which our technology simply wasn’t up to the task. It is now.