Alexa Part of Artemis I Mission to the Moon, Says Amazon

Alexa is part of NASA’s Artemis I mission to the moon, said Amazon Monday, saying voice-enabled computers on Star Trek spaceships were an inspiration for Amazon’s voice engine. Amazon engineers began working on the project in 2018 to solve issues with extreme forces, vibrations and radiation, blogged Arun Krishnan, editor-in-chief, Amazon Alexa. They also had to make sure Alexa could follow commands throughout the 42-day, 1.3-million-mile trip, including within 62 miles of the lunar surface, without Wi-Fi. In space, Alexa Local Voice Control processes commands locally, technology that could be extended for other uses, Krishnan said. To make sure Alexa could understand speech in a noisy environment, engineers designed two mics with a processing algorithm that combines signals from the mics in a way that helps Alexa make sense of commands coming from mission control, he said. Alexa device owners can follow Artemis I by saying, “Alexa, take me to the moon.”