Astronaut Flying AI assistant, Google is going to put Alexa in the spacecraft

We're one step closer to A Space Odyssey 2001...

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Author | Dong Zibo

When NASA first launches its new large deep space rocket in the coming months, familiar voice assistants and video teleconferencing tools will follow. Amazon's version of the Alexa voice assistant and Cisco's Webex video conferencing platform will fly into space, and as part of the technology demonstration, NASA will assess whether these tools will benefit astronauts to future distant destinations such as the moon and Mars.

The upcoming space figure is called Artemis I, the first test mission of NASA's Artemis program. The mission plans to send the first female and first astronauts of color to the lunar surface.

Tentatively scheduled for March, Artemis One will mark the first flight of NASA's Next-Generation Rocket Space Launch System (SLS), a giant rocket Boeing has been developing for the past decade. The SLS is designed to send people and cargo into deep space, while astronauts are in a new crew capsule called Orion, located at the top of the rocket.

In Artemis One's plan, SLS will launch the Orion crew module around the moon during a weeks-long flight — the first time the two vehicles have flown into space together. This was a critical test launch, so this time there were no real astronauts inside Orion, only simulated mannequins.

However, "fake passengers" will have some "machine companions". Lockheed Martin, in partnership with Amazon and Cisco, installed an operator interface at the location of Orion's control panel. Named "Callisto" after the companion of the Greek mythical Artemis, the box will feature a voice-activated Alexa speaker with the iconic blue ring light, and an iPad running Webex.

At a specific point in time during Artemis I's mission, people on the ground tested the box to simulate astronaut interactions with speakers and screens on the Orion crew cabin. Ultimately, Lockheed Martin, Amazon, and Cisco wanted to see if such an interface would be beneficial to future deep space travelers.

Aaron Rubensen, vice president of Amazon Alexa Everywhere, said at a news conference: "We envision a future where astronauts can turn to onboard ARTIFICIAL for information and help, and ultimately get companionship. He added: "It's not hard to imagine that astronauts could ask the onboard AI to get the status of the spacecraft's subsystems, control the lights in the cabin, or ask for a specific camera view." ”

To see if these tools work, Lockheed Martin will hire "virtual machine crews" on the ground. When Orion is sailing in space, an officer at NASA's Mission Control center in Houston will issue orders to Alexa. The person's voice will be played through the speakers inside Orion to activate Alexa. Members of the Virtual Machine Group will ask for certain types of information, such as how fast Orion is moving in space, or when the capsule will perform the next thruster burn. Alexa aims to extract real-time data from Orion and answer these questions through its speakers.

The Orion spacecraft is equipped with Wi-Fi, but since the vehicle will be speeding in space far from Earth during the demonstration, the internet connection will be greatly limited. As a result, Alexa needs to answer some immediate questions from virtual machine crew members without having to access the Internet during the flight. So Amazon designed a system for Alex called "local voice control" that enables it to respond to a variety of predetermined commands. Rob Chambers, director of commercial and civil space strategy at Lockheed Martin, said at the briefing: "There are hundreds of parameters, thousands of utterances [in Alexa] where we will be able to have real-time access. ”

The virtual machine crew will also ask Alexa to adjust the lighting inside Orion. "It's Alexa's signature use case, at least at home." Chambers said. Lockheed Martin installed a separate LED lighting system in the capsule behind the panel display so that Alexa could control it. Lockheed Martin also installed some microphones and cameras throughout orion's cockpit, as well as a virtual reality camera to record the presentation and ensure the box worked properly during the mission.

The last test will see if the Webex platform works. Virtual machine crew members on the ground will appear on the iPad screen inside Orion and have a 720P video conference with Alexa during the flight.

Of course, the inability to connect to the Internet will also be a major constraint. In a briefing, Geitu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco, said: "This experiment will have a lot of return loss compensation technology because the network connection will not be as reliable as it is on the ground. So we have to make sure that we take that into account. Cisco envisions that while astronauts travel through space, astronauts can use Webex for video conferencing with workers or loved ones on the ground.

However, "Carristow" is first and foremost a technical demonstration, and there are currently no plans to use the box in future Orion missions. The next flight after Artemis I is Artemis II, which will actually carry astronauts around the moon in the constellation Orion. If "Carristow" does succeed, then a future version of this system may appear in a very different form in the upcoming Artemis mission. "We're talking to NASA about other applications of this," Chambers said.

Partners already have a grand vision for the capabilities of the future "Caristo" system, from controlling timers, video displays, to cameras in the cockpit of spacecraft or ambient temperatures. "We see value now," Chambers said. "We can start working with members of the space industry to figure out the most valuable directions that should be this capability."

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