Lunar-cy? Amazon is sending Alexa to the MOON

Virgin Radio

11 Jan 2022, 11:54

As if the world couldn't get any more mad, the AI assistant is due to take part in her own mission to the moon on a Nasa spaceship later this year in a project called Callisto.

Why? If successful, she'll be able to keep astronauts linked up to the latest news or sports results while in space to keep them company on long haul missions while also helping astronauts be more self-reliant and not having to call up Houston so frequently.

She'll be put onboard 'Nasa’s Orion deep-space capsule as a part of the Artemis 1 round-the-moon mission' in place of any humans. Operators at Houston’s Mission Control will be able to communicate with the AI instead.

The collaboration between aerospace and defence company, Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco is the first moon mission in 50 years by Nasa.

Lisa Callahan, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager of commercial civil space, explained: "Callisto will demonstrate a first-of-its-kind technology that could be used in the future to enable astronauts to be more self-reliant as they explore deep space."

Originally inspired by the Star Trek computer, 2014-born Alexa was based on ‘an ambient intelligence that is there when you need it but then also fades into the background when you don’t need it’.

Aaron Rubenson, vice president of Amazon Alexa, said: "We envision a future where astronauts could turn to an onboard AI for access to information, for assistance in doing their job, making their job simpler and more efficient, and ultimately for some form of companionship."

"These are the sorts of challenges that we’ve been working through to make this demonstration possible," said Rubenson.

"From a capability standpoint, we’ve also added thousands of new interactions that Alexa can process that are relevant to space and to the mission."

Any earthlings who own an Alexa can say ‘Alexa, take me to the Moon’ and they'll be given updates on the exciting mission.

Artemis 1 is due for launch from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida in March or April 2022.

One small step for Alexa...