well I'm going to start out by saying
Welcome to our special operations room
here for Callisto uh in Mission Control
here at Johnson Space Center I am very
excited to have you as our guest today
pumped to be here yeah it's good we're
gonna have a good time so my name is
Justin Nicholas uh I'm the lead designer
for Alexa on this project and I'm going
to help you out with your experience
with Callisto today uh Callisto is a
technology demonstration uh between
Lockheed Martin Amazon and WebEx by
Cisco and we're testing how commercial
technology can help future astronauts on
deep space missions incredible so before
we jump in any further though have you
ever wanted to go to space
uh there there was a time uh when I was
younger where I thought I looked pretty
cool in the flight suit
um but I I don't know I don't think I'm
cut out for it I'm much more comfortable
behind a desk like this yeah I think I
think I would farewell here well that
that's going to work out well for you
today
um well you're in luck because we
weren't able to get you a seat on board
Orion today oh man too bad but I think
we have the next best thing so we
invited you here to help us test the
technology that we built yeah so today
you're going to imagine that you are an
astronaut inside the crew cabin or a
virtual crew member inside of Orion as
you interact with the technology today
incredible yeah so
um what we're going to do to kind of
help set the scene here is I'm going to
have rich rich can you bring up the
external cameras
wow that is nuts so imagine having it
right now inside Orion and then you look
out the window and you would see these
views insane yeah no these views are
incredible so these are taken from
external cameras that are on the solar
array of wings so you're kind of getting
uh Orion here is kind of taking a selfie
of itself with the uh incredible camera
out there
so these photos were taken within the
last 24 hours and then we down link them
here so these aren't live got it but
would you like to see a live view from
inside the spacecraft let's see it all
right
can we bring up cab three cap four
insane yeah so this is a live view
inside Orion on the left hand side this
is the Callisto payload yep and then on
the right hand side this is a view uh
that if you were sitting one of the
astronaut seats that you would have
that's unbelievable so what's what's
what all am I looking at in this one
here so on the top half yeah you have
four Windows you can kind of see a
little bit of light refracting uh yeah
top center right there looks like some
Stars maybe yeah I think it might just
be the window but it kind of does look
like stars it does yeah uh and then we
have the the payload in the middle yep
and then below that you see that little
orange
right down there that's Snoopy Snoopy in
an orange suit so he's our zero gravity
indicator
look it looks like he's a little stuck
down there yeah over on the left here it
looks like there's an astronaut that is
actually a mannequin uh Commander Campo
um Moonequin Campos which is the name uh and
it is uh
getting data as it's going around the
Moon to make uh regarding that data so
we can Harvest it and use it for future
space flight to make sure everybody's
safe incredible yeah
you realize how cool your job is right I
do yeah I really do pretty awesome
all right so now let's say that uh
you're an astronaut you're inside Orion
here ready to start your day yep uh the
life of an astronaut in space is very
scheduled uh their time is very valuable
they have a lot of things to do so I
guess it's like being on tour exactly
you so you follow a schedule in space
exactly so this is going to be very
similar to that uh so in front of you we
have a crew timeline here that we're
going to refer to throughout the day
that'll keep us on track okay and uh as
you can see there one of the things that
we have to do as a status report so just
like when people wake up here on Earth
one of the first things they do is they
grab their phone they want to see what
they missed they want to see what's
coming up well for astronaut one of the
things that they do is that they check
the status of the battery
makes sense the battery uh provides
power for all the subsystems that keep
the vehicle and the astronauts healthy
so on the left hand side here uh in the
display is something similar that future
astronauts would see for the battery
so if you could take a look at that and
give me the battery status
um I feel like I'm back in middle school
here taking a test yeah I have no idea
yeah that is the correct answer yeah uh
we don't expect you to have done if I
was like oh yeah it's uh I would have
loved it I would have loved it you'd
have been greenlit to become an
astronaut
so the
um
uh the we don't expect you to be able to
understand a complex design like this
without these same kind of training an
astronaut would go through
so but one of the things that Callisto
is testing is how we take this same
information and then make it in
optimized ways depending on who's
looking at it so Ari
can you bring up the optimized solar
display
so they're sending a command up to the
vehicle to be able to change what's on
the screen there that's crazy I just saw
that yeah so now this is a more
simplified optimized version of this so
now can you take a look and tell me what
the average battery charge is
uh average battery charge
says like
98.95.4 yep I think that's right I think
my eyes checked here no it's I I see it
the same
so well done so you're halfway on
becoming an astronaut right there
and it's that easy yeah just that easy
uh so we're gonna bring up another Spike
uh Ari can you bring up the Telemetry
screen
so you can kind of hear him give the
command to the back room they're setting
that signal up to Orion
and then you can kind of see a change up
there distance from Earth miles 208 thoudsand
348. isn't that insane that is nuts
[Laughter]
all right so looking our status report
we have uh confirm met
uh so
let's see here we have I'm sure you've
you know T minus countdown before rocket
launches yep so that's before launch
after launch it counts up that's a
mission elapsed time got it so can you
look up here and can you tell me what
day of the mission we're in
what day of the mission we're in uh
I assume it's just the whatever's in
parentheses okay yeah so day six that's
correct hour 15 minute 10
second 25 that's right
oh 600 now it's the days yeah that's
right just wanted to sound cool when I
said it get that authenticity in there
all right so we're about halfway done
with our status check we have a couple
more things that uh we want to check off
our list but instead of using these
screens inside Orion to be able to get
that information we're going to use our
virtual assistant Alexa to get that
information sounds cool uh so Alexa has
the same access to all the flight
software and data that is using to
populate these screens
insane all right so what we have to do
though is we have to get your voice from
here in Mission Control
up to Orion so that's just a casual 208
000 miles away exactly I'm glad you
understand the gravity of this yeah uh
so what we're going to use is something
called the deep space Network and that
is a series of communication dishes here
on Earth that are strategically
positioned around the earth that are
ones always pointed towards the vehicle
uh and then over the last 50 years every
uh deep space mission is used uh the
deep space Network to communicate with
it
when Neil Armstrong took his first steps
on the moon to use the deep space
Network to communicate his famous quote
back to Earth and today you're going to
use that same network to send your voice
to Orion I don't feel Worthy
oh you are
okay so is it just like in the training
room
grab that and then
all right
are you ready to send your voice into
space I am ready all right
send that command up there when you're
ready
Alexa how much oxygen do we have left
so cool
all right wow that is
pretty mind-blowing do you have an Alexa
device at home I do okay yeah so when
you when you speak to Alexa your voice
goes up to the cloud and it comes back
it happens very fast yeah uh if an
astronaut were to
do that here it would take upwards of
could be upwards of 20 seconds for that
information to come back down to the
cloud here on Earth and go all the way
back and that's a long time to wait for
a voice conversation it is so Amazon
created something called local voice
control technology that takes all that
power that we do in the cloud uh turning
your voice into words turning those
words into what you want to do or doing
all of that onboard Orion without the
need for internet connection so that
astronauts are able to get that
information instantaneously that's so
crazy you wanna do another one I would
love to all right just send that command
there
Do you want me to hold it? uhh I'll do a little selfie you're a pro
hold on me
okay
Alexa how far away from Earth are you
[foreign] Casual
[Laughter]
all right we have one more uh voice test
we can do uh you want to send that last
one there
Alexa how fast is Orion going
okay
all right you want to give that one one
more try
Alexa how fast is Orion going
there we go Alexa how fast is Orion going
[Music]
that's nuts yeah very fast faster than
any car that I've rented
very cool
okay so now that we've tested how Alexa
can help astronauts inside Orion uh in
the future we're going to now test a
video conferencing through the deep
space Network
okay sounds complicated yeah it's very
complicated so what we're going to do
um on my Mark I'm going to have you hit
this button here and what that's going
to do is it's going to activate this
camera and it's going to project you
into space on Callisto fantastic okay
which button sorry I missed the tutorial
here no it's okay it's the the call
Orion one
sounds good all right I can do that are
you ready to make a video call to space
I was born for this all right let's do
it go ahead when you're ready initiate
the call
well
there we go
so that'll send the command to the
tablet on the left
a few all right that works here and then
over on the left should be able to
initiate that call
there we are there's some of it
just waiting for it to go to space so
what WebEx did is they created a bespoke
version of WebEx oh here it comes
crazy yeah it's difficult to send audio
and video over 200 000 miles away and
there you are in space
wow hello
space here do you want me to get a
selfie over here
yeah all right
ready turn around quick when we can get
you here you go which way am I trying
this way right here
let me get one or just you
ready
all right I'll get those to you
awesome it's unbelievable yeah so
there's your space debut
my space debut
that is so cool
so this will be operational
for astronauts from from now on
basically this technology so what we're
doing here is we're testing to see if
these Technologies would be helpful for
astronauts and that's why we invited you
in to go through this test to make sure
that uh it is looks like it's valuable
for the crew we're testing the
technology to make sure that the
communication up to the vehicle works
you can see we had a little loss of
signal here to make sure that the
technology we put on board works yeah so
there's a lot of a lot of moving pieces
that we want to test so Orion or Artemis
one is they're testing a lot of things
so Orion or Artemis one is testing the
launch vehicle the SLS
testing the crew cabin Orion and then
we're testing our secondary payload
Callisto
so I'm going to check in to see uh
uh are we going to have any more views
up here or
okay
so they're like I was talking about
there's these three dishes or three
sites with these communication dishes on
Earth yeah and as the Earth turns it
kind of switches between them and I've
heard that we're transitioning between
one of the the big 70 meter ones and one
of the smaller ones and I guess when
that happens we lose that signal
so cool
it happens yeah it also happens with the
ISS so not we're not special in that
respect it happens to everybody
crazy yeah so how long have you been
working on this project
I've been working on it for four years
I know some of the guys over at Lockheed
and ass have been working on it even
longer but it's uh very exciting to see
somebody like yourself come in and be
able to test it out it feels very real
right yeah it's got to be gratifying
it really is
after so much hard work yep
oh you guys give me a signal when you're
ready I hear a lot of engineering
chatter but I don't hear just you I hear
it all
so what'd you get at the gift shop did
you stop there
I got my uh
my my daughter some stuff onesie and a
flight jacket oh it's so cool there's
some good stuff in there it's awesome
I've been in there last couple days that
I'm just like looking at my luggage to
see like how much space do I have to get
all this stuff up I'm thinking about
shipping another bag home probably smart
yeah
where do you live I live in Seattle the
Amazon headquarters there nice yeah
glad it's sunny here today I was feeling
a little Seattle this morning
we're good to go all right
uh do you have any smart devices in your
house like smartphone
um yeah I think so I I kind of you know
I like the Alexa because it's just kind
of everything yeah but the other things
I like I like to kind of do things
myself sometimes you know what I mean I
absolutely hear you um sort of analog
that way but I I do have a few things
yeah I think it's important to have the
analog options especially if somebody
comes over you know totally have to know
how to be able to use it uh so millions
of people on Earth uh rely on Alexa to
manage their smart home and for the
Callisto payload we have some lights on
board the cabin that we can control
would you like to test that out I would
like to all right I'll basically do
anything you
Alexa set the light to Blue
that was like instant yeah
I think you just sent the farthest smart
home command to Alexa in history right
there can I get a Guinness Book of World
Records for that something
uh I do have one more here for you if
you want to do it that's a fun one I bet
Alexa
turn on party mode
oh yes
they're dancing over there
[Laughter]
that's so wild
so these are examples of being able to
use voice in space and then trying to
bring some of the conveniences that we
have here on Earth and hopefully bring
them up to space for future astronauts
so do you have any loved ones or family
members that you think would want to go
to space I have lots
but but two come come to mind right away
yeah who is that uh I mean my wife was
pretty jealous that I was coming here
today I bet she's she's a big fan of
NASA as a whole and of this and
um had you know dreams of going to space
and then you know I I think I'd love to
to send a message to my daughter but
also you know all young people out there
to dream big you know because look at
where that could take you yeah oh that's
fantastic so we're going to move over to
the white board over here and test out
future crew members can interact with
co-workers when they're on a deep space
mission so if you want to follow me over
there love to great
foreign
so imagine that your wife and your
daughter
are on a spaceship on Orion yeah and
you're here in Mission Control
and you're able to use this whiteboard
to send them a message
what do you want to send to them
here we go
because someone
someone
boom I love it and if you look over here
your message is inside Orion in space
that's so cool it's very cool that's
like the worst handwriting ever in space
it's the message that counts it looks
great
wow that's so radical
all right so now that you're familiar
with the Whiteboard here you have a good
feel for it
I have another
task for you
so let's say that they were on board
Orion and they're going to do they're
gonna land on the moon yeah they sent
you this photo you're here in mission
control and your job I'll give you this
your job is to be able to get them from
here
to here so this is the landing site and
this is where they need to get some
lunar samples so if you were to draw a
path in this uh lunar landscape how
would you draw a line from one to the
other if you were to give them
instructions on how to like Traverse the
the land here I feel like this is a
trick question there's no trick question
you get to decide whatever you want to
do you can make complicated you can make
it simple
okay we're gonna go like this we're
gonna watch her step through here yep
we're gonna go around this way
make sure to
head over whatever this uh thing is over
here
get some good views
come back down take a quick stop here
for a little rest yeah and then come
back around
all the way down boom
how's that good we need an alternate
path though NASA we make sure that we
always have okay it makes sense
alternate path yep we're gonna go like
this uh-huh
boom
through here oh I like that through here
rest then we're going to take the long
way around just to be extra safe all the
way around here
up and over
to our location I like it I like this
spot right here it's like a little Oasis
there's a there's a certain special
special all right fantastic
all right so you can imagine how if we
had this using this technology to
communicate with somebody on board be
able to like annotate drawings like this
send messages or just collaborate with
people remotely
awesome is this like the size of uh
Texas oh between these two locations I'm
not sure I'm gonna have to get some help
on that all right so let's move back
over the desk
all right so we're moving through our
test here so we just went through the
collaboration test up there number five
uh and now we have some personal time
um
you can imagine that being away from
family on a long duration Mission uh you
need to keep a sense of humor to keep
your spirits up watch away from the
families good movies exactly uh so we
have uh Alexa's personality to help out
with that oh perfect do you want to give
it a try
Alexa tell me a joke
uh
I like it
all right so uh we've had a really busy
day uh the last thing that we have to do
is to send the Sleep sequence command
so when you're ready
you can send the last command of the day
Alexa go to sleep mode
turns off the lights look at that since
I'm like ambient
sleep sound so if you're in the cavern
unbelievable
well done well done pretty remarkable
thank you so much for coming in today
and helping us test this out uh we have
a couple of things we want to do after
this uh the first thing though is we're
commemorating everybody who interacts
with the payload with a mission log over
here do you want to follow me over there
perfect would love to
for sure crew member make sure that it's
up on there and you can see
that this will happen I'll let you
choose whatever color you want down
there
Green's cool why not signature or yeah
put your signature up here
it is the 22nd for the date
and 11 22 22.
awesome so cool thank you so much thank
you this was incredible uh appreciate it
so we had a team in here helping us out
I think you've heard them kind of
talking but we have a whole support room
back here that was kind of the magic
behind the scenes so I just want to stop
in and see yeah please
see how they're doing thank you guys
that was amazing yeah thank you so much
very cool