In the Summer of 2011 a one week-long experiment, linked with field operations in the Arizona desert under the NASA DRATS programme, was operated from an ESA control room. The experiment was a NASA and ESA joint-venture with a diverse team composed of staff of CNRS, the University of Amsterdam and the Ibn Battuta Centre/IRSPS  (Goro Komatsu, Francesca Cannarsa and Gian Gabriele Ori). For the first time, a joint American and European team operated a human exploration experiment in Arizona from an ESA establishment (ESTEC).