Alexa Voice Assistant – to Mission in Space

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Unique human-machine interface technologies will be integrated into NASA’s Orion spacecraft thanks to a collaboration between technology giants. Lockheed Martin, Amazon, and Cisco have teamed up to provide an opportunity to learn how future astronauts could benefit from far-field voice technology, AI and tablet-based video collaboration.

The Callisto technology is a unique, vehicle-connected crew interface technology demonstration. It uses Amazon Alexa and Webex by Cisco to test and demonstrate commercial technology for deep space voice, video and whiteboarding communications. Lockheed Martin, which designed and built the Orion spacecraft for NASA, is leading the development and integration of the payload. 

The technology could be used in the future to enable astronauts to be more self-reliant as they explore deep space. 

The Callisto payload features a custom hardware and software integration and includes innovative technology that allows Alexa to work without an internet connection, and Webex to run on a tablet using NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Since Artemis I is an uncrewed mission, Callisto partners have worked with NASA to build a virtual crew experience, allowing operators to interact with Callisto from the Mission Control Center. These remote interactions will test and demonstrate how voice and video collaboration technologies can help astronauts improve efficiency and situational awareness during their mission, providing access to flight status and telemetry, and the ability to control connected devices onboard Orion. 

Video and audio of the interactions will be transmitted back to Earth many times throughout the Artemis I mission, allowing engineers to analyze the performance of the onboard systems while also sharing interactions with the public, according to lockheedmartin.com.

Artemis I is currently scheduled to launch in early 2022 for a multi-week journey around the Moon and back.