Voice, Video Collaboration Tech to Be Featured in NASA's Artemis I Mission

Callisto technology, a custom hardware and software integration developed by engineers from Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco, will be used in NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I multiweek uncrewed mission scheduled for early this year around the moon and back to Earth, said the companies Wednesday. Human-machine interface technologies built into Orion will help show how future astronauts could benefit from far-field voice technology, AI and tablet-based video collaboration, they said. "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," said Lisa Callahan, Lockheed Martin general manager-commercial civil space. Callisto partners worked with NASA to build a virtual crew experience at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, allowing operators to interact with Callisto from the Mission Control Center. The 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 numerous times throughout the Artemis I mission, allowing engineers to analyze the performance of the onboard systems while sharing interactions with the public. The Callisto technology demonstration will allow the public to engage with and virtually "ride along" with the Artemis I mission. They can follow the mission on Alexa-enabled devices by saying "Alexa, take me to the Moon." Cisco’s Webex video collaboration capabilities will offer opportunities for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and remote classroom teaching events, said the companies.