New NASA Tech Allows Anyone To Send Messages To An iPad Aboard Orion Vessel
By Alexa Heah, 25 Nov 2022
As the Orion space capsule makes its way to the Moon and back, here’s one way the public can take part in the historic proceedings. Callisto, a new technology being trialed by Lockheed Martin, Amazon, and Cisco, now allows anyone to communicate with its system via messages on an iPad, displayed “for the world to see.”
Of course, there aren’t any astronauts onboard the Artemis I mission, which is being performed in preparation for the Artemis II launch, in which a crew of human astronauts will return to the Moon for the first time in decades.
Callisto will act as a voice and video communication system for these astronauts during their journey, enabling them to access flight status information, including spacecraft orientation, water supply levels, or battery voltage status, by just using simple voice commands.
Fittingly enough, NASA has revealed that the technology is named after a mythological Greek goddess and one of Artemis’ hunting attendants, making it the perfect partner to the slew of Artemis missions the agency has planned for the coming years.
On the current flight, Castillo features on a tablet that will test video conferencing software, deeming if video and audio transmissions can be sent from the Mission Control Center to the space capsule, as well as Amazon Alexa’s ability to respond to the transmitted commands.
As the agency explains, while Alexa makes use of “the cloud” to function here on Earth, it would take far too long for the virtual assistant to connect back to the cloud while on Orion. To work, the software will instead tap on NASA’s Deep Space Network and a local database on the spacecraft.
“Orion is already the most advanced spacecraft ever developed to carry astronauts to the Moon, and voice activation technology could take it to the next level by enabling the interactive computer systems of science fiction spaceships to become a reality for the next generation of explorers,” quips Howard Hu, Deputy Orion Program Manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Participants can send messages to Callisto by asking Alexa a question or delivering a task command, with their images and voices broadcast into orbit. Videos will be displayed on the tablet and audio played from the connected speaker.
Want to take part? Head over to this website to fill out the ‘Communicate with Callisto’ form, and if your message is approved, it will eventually appear on the iPad within the Orion capsule, though with no one on board, the experience could be similar to screaming into the void.
[via Gizmodo and NASA, images via Lockheed Martin]