A GROUP of Southampton University experts has teamed up with US space agency NASA to find quicker ways to communicate with astronauts in space.

It is hoped the technology, to which city scientists are contributing, will help make possible manned missions to the surface of the red planet Mars.

Called the Meeting Replay Tool, the new technology would effectively shrink the vast distances separating NASA's Houston, Texas, operations base and astronauts on Mars by allowing them to video meetings and transmit them back in just a few hours.

NASA experts are currently testing the new communications deep in the Utah Desert, which is said to recreate aspects of the environment found on the red planet's surface.

The trial is part of a wider test of technologies at the Mars Society's Desert Research Station featuring teams of scientists simulating a real mission.

Dr Danius Michaelides, of Southampton University, said: "NASA are looking at different ways of working together in groups separated by time and distance. They are trying different technologies and working out which work well.

"I think they were very pleased with what happened. But going to Mars is still a long way down the line."

Romsey's Roke Manor Research made a radar altimeter trigger for the ill-fated Beagle 2 Marslander, which vanished.

But the company is keen on getting involved with another future space bid.