well first of all welcome uh to our
special operations room here in Mission
Control Johnson Space Center I am super
excited to have you guys here I hope you
guys are excited as well for sure
definitely very awesome uh so my name is
Justin Nicholas I'm the lead designer
for Alexa on this project uh and I'm
going to help you out with your
experience with Callisto today Callisto
is a technology demonstration uh between
it's a partnership between Lockheed
Martin Amazon and WebEx by Cisco we're
testing how commercial technology can
help future astronauts on deep space
missions
so that's why we invited you here to
help us test it out
um before we dive in though I'd like to
hear uh you give me your name uh the
school that you're at and and what what
age you're teaching
let me start with you okay uh my name is
Jacob Jun I teach at Rancho San Juan
High School in Salinas for Mission
Trails ROP and I teach 9-12 High School
awesome
my name is Voke Ogueh I teach computer
science at Hastings High School in Alief
ISD so it's here in Houston the fighting
bears nice
and I'm Chris Hatton I teach at KIPP
Center City Academy I teach a class
called Makerspace which is like
engineering for middle schoolers so
fifth through eighth grade nice uh have any
of you ever wanted to go to space oh for
sure oh yeah
that's a silly question
uh well we weren't able to get you a
seat on board Orion today unfortunately
but I think we have the next best thing
so we invited you here to help us test
out Callisto
Artemis one is testing a lot of
different things it's testing the launch
vehicle which is the SLS the space space
launch system uh it's testing the crew
cabin which is Orion and then we're
testing our secondary payload which is
Callisto so today I'm going to have you
imagine that you're astronauts inside the
crew cabin or virtual crew members
inside Orion as we kind of test out this
technology
sound good sounds great all right so
what we're going to do is we're going to
go through this test as kind of in the
day in the life of an astronaut so the
moment that you wake up to the moment
you go to sleep and to help uh set the
stage here I'm going to ask Rich
can you bring up the external views
to bring up these views
now
that is so cool I'll give you a second
to let that settle in so these are
images that are taken from external
cameras on Orion that were taken within
the last 24 hours
incredible imagine waking up looking out
the window and seeing that
wow and that's the Moon yes on the right
hand side you can see the moon and
left-hand side and there's the Earth
uh these uh confirm that these are
coming from cameras that are mounted to
the solar arrays so you can see a little
image of a Orion on that um monitor over
there and just because I know my
students would ask where are the stars
so that's a good question uh so the
cameras that we have aren't uh set up to
be able to take to see that kind of
light coming in from the stars stars are
out there but it's just not with these
camera with this camera in these
settings thank you
thank you that was I had the same
similar response where are the stars
um so this is really cool like I said
these are from the last 24 hours but
would you guys like to see a live video
feed from inside Orion yes
hey Rich you bring up cab three and four
so this is a live video feed from inside
Orion including the sound that we're
hearing
so that's the sound that's happening in
space right now inside the vehicle
on the left hand side this is our
payload Callisto
and then on the right hand side is a
view that you would have if you were
sitting in one of the astronaut seat
so just for like a little orientation
there's some windows on the top
there's four Windows starting from on
the top top side of Orion there our
payload you can see in the middle uh
there is a mannequin on the left are we
calling a moonikin that's collecting a
lot of data as it's circling the moon so
we can use that data for future crewed
space flight
and if you can see kind of below the
payload there's a little orange Snoopy yeah
yeah that's our zero gravity indicator
uh kind of tucked away down there right
by the uh the flag
and there's a history behind using
Snoopy right the peanuts thing yeah
yeah there is uh it was uh I'll have
Jeannie bust in whatever she wants here
but I believe it was a pin used to uh
given to people for safety uh to make
sure that the crew is safe and that was
an award they gave am I on it
it's the astronaut's award it's for recognition and only one percent of the NASA less
than one percent of the NASA workforce receives it
it's the astronaut's award
that recognizes safety and the highest
contributions to the mission
cool great
call though you know you know your
history
all right so now imagine that uh your
insult you're a virtual astronaut you're
inside the crew cabin here uh you woke
up and you're ready to start your day so
astronauts days are very scheduled their
time is precious they have a lot to do
so
they go through a timeline to keep track
of what they do throughout the day and
that terminal in front of you you can
see that there's a crew timeline we're
going to refer to that throughout our
session today to keep us on track just
like an astronaut would
uh one of the first things that at least
I do or a lot of people on Earth do when
they wake up is they they check their
phone they want to see what they've
missed they want to see what's coming up
kind of just an overall status when
astronauts wake up they do a similar
thing that they do they check a status
and one of the things that they check is
the battery status the battery provides
the power for all the subsystems that
keep the vehicle and the crew healthy so
on the left here uh on the tablet there
is a battery display that future
astronauts could use
so uh Chris
first thing we have on our status report
there is to do a battery status can you
take a look at that display and give me
the status of the battery
over right up here on the tablet okay
yeah no just yeah just look at it okay
yeah okay yeah that's okay it's it's a
tough question okay
there's a lot of information up there
yeah yeah
so
essentially a trick question because I
don't expect you to know to be able to
read this kind of display without the
same kind of training that astronauts go
through right there's a lot of
information coming back from the vehicle
it's very dense so there's a lot of
training that that is involved with that
but one of the things that we're testing
with this project is to be able to take
the same information that's uh feeding
this display and putting it in optimized
ways so you could have an optimized
display for engineers or for astronauts
or civilians like us so uh Ari could you
bring up the battery display or the
optimize solar display
so now
we've taken that same information and
kind of put it into a more optimized
display at least I would say for us so
if Voke if you could take a look at that
and can you give me the uh average
battery charge
yeah I've seen 94.2 percent
much easier than looking at that
other display you cheated yeah
you got the hard question
uh all right Ari can you bring up the
Telemetry display
so you can see like I'm asking Ari or
the responsible engineer over there and
then he's setting those uh talking to
the engineering room and then they're
sending the signal up into the vehicle
to switch it on the iPad there's a lot
of coordination going on here tonight
okay so here's another uh optimized
display screen this is kind of some
general Telemetry uh you guys are
familiar with familiar with the T-minus
countdown before a launch uh after
launch it turns into met or mission
elapsed time and that's actually
counting up from when the the launch
happens so uh Jacob if you could take a
look at this and give me what day of the
mission we're in
you didn't know I'd be giving you a pop
quiz huh 16
that is correct nice job
I didn't tell you about the pop quiz
there uh yeah no that's absolutely right
uh so we're going through our status
report we've done the battery status
optimized solar reading we can confirm
the MET next thing up is an oxygen level
check uh instead of pulling up a new
screen though we're gonna use our
onboard virtual assistant Alexa to be
able to get that information so the
flight software that's giving all the
data to these displays Alexa has access
to that same information so a different
way to be able to access this similar
similar kind of information so Chris
I'll have you go first
hang on grab the
push button there
and feel free to move the mic if you
need to
right all right and then uh so before
you do this though uh in order to
have Alexa hear you we need to get your
voice from here up to the vehicle and
we're using something called the deep
space Network and we heard a little bit
about this before in the other room but
there are these communication dishes
strategically placed around the earth so
no matter which way it's pointing one is
always in contact with the vehicle over
the last 50 years almost every uh
mission to space has used the deep space
mission to communicate with and when
Neil Armstrong took his first steps on
the moon the deep space network is what
he used to transmit his famous first
words
today we're going to be using that same
network to send your voice into space
okay
[Laughter]
so no pressure yeah
so Chris whenever you're ready okay
Alexa how much oxygen do we have left
oh all right we're gonna have to try
again give it a try give a try uh just
give yourself a little bit more space
between you and the microphone so lean
back just a little bit
Alexa how much oxygen do we have left
since Artemis one is an uncrewed Mission
the vehicle is not flying with oxygen
reserves on board however the crew cabin
is filled prior to launch with oxygen
and nitrogen and percentages similar to
the atmosphere on Earth 21 percent oxygen 78 percent
nitrogen the crew cabin currently has 11.7
pounds oxygen and 37.8 pounds nitrogen
that is cool yeah that was very cool
that was your voice in space [Laughter] your turn
so before we go any further I do want to
call out so if you look at the window on
the right hand side yes uh that's the
Moon
that bright light right there in the
window is the moon oh
wow I didn't want the vehicle to turn
and miss that opportunity for you guys
to know that so nice uh I haven't seen
it out that window before very cool
thing to see yeah see that was part of
what you ordered when you ordered you
got the weather I got the moon what else
do you guys take a picture of it yo
absolutely oh yeah
I can't miss that I can't
my students thought I was going to be
dressed up like that mannequin
they're asking when am I going to space
yeah my kids asked me that too
how's that spaceship that you built like
well I don't know do I want to correct
them
all right
uh all right Voke you are up so you can
see we are now we just did the oxygen
level check now we're going to uh check
the lunar ETA so if you want to grab the
button there okay and go ahead when
you're ready
Alexa how far are you from the Earth
that's good
Alexa how far are you from the Earth currently
Orion is 230.
oh so we just had some loss of signal
right there yeah a deep space Oh
we'll give it a couple seconds before we
uh we try again and the Moon is moving
away from the window yeah that's why I
wanted to call it at the time you know
that's that was really cool
so I was just told I'm not sure if you
heard that but they did a burn this
morning and so there's some Correctional
uh things that are happening after that
burn and that's interfering with our our
signal okay
all right uh told that we're good to go
Jacob you wanna
so the next thing we have is to check
the vehicle's speed I don't know if you
can see the iPad over there okay great
Alexa how fast is Orion going
Orion's current relative velocity to
Earth is
2493 miles per hour the maximum speed
Orion will travel during the mission is
24 700 miles per hour upon Earth entry
pretty fast
did you want to try yours again since we
got caught up no I'm good are you sure
yeah I mean we got the time okay yeah
yeah you wanna do it yeah yeah yeah come on
Alexa how far are you from Earth
ready when you're ready
Alexa how far are you from Earth
currently Orion is 230
574 miles away from Earth and 50 998
miles away from the Moon
cool pretty incredible yeah pretty
pretty far
uh so do you guys have Alexa devices at
home I do yes so I'm sure you're
familiar when you uh make your request
to Alexa you get the response back
really fast but it does go up to the
cloud and come back it uses the internet
for this version of Alexa that's on
Callisto uh we use a technology called
local voice control so the let's just
say there's an astronaut on board
and we're using the cloud and they would
make a request it'd be 13 seconds like
maybe up to 20 seconds round trip
depending on what's going on with the
deep space Network to be able to get
that response back that's a long time
for a pause and you know 20 seconds in
the conversation so uh local voice
control enables all the things that make
Alexa work so there is turning your
voice into words which is called uh
automatic speech recognition turning
those words into what you want to do
which is natural language understanding
all that that normally happens in the
cloud we're doing offline right here
inside Callisto on the payload so if an
astronaut were on board and they made
that request they'd be able to get that
back instantaneously instead of having
to wait to go through the deep space
network
so that's one of the big things that
we're trying to test out today is you
know how is this working be able to have
you guys come in and help us test that
so if there if things if we lose
connection or if we get a bad response
like these are all things that are you
know good for us because these are
things that we're testing anything that
we find you know your your quote that
you wrote In The Practice room is a good
example that you know you can't really
can't learn right unless you uh yeah
yeah just curious since it's all
embedded within it is it a faster
response time than it would be for it to
go through the cloud on Earth is it
faster on Orion than it is on uh yeah
yeah it does uh so uh we have versions
of this that exist on Earth here uh this
is probably the most robust version that
we've built but uh Alexa Auto
uh you know imagine you're going through
an area that doesn't have internet
connection you still want to be able to
communicate with your car uh we have
that there are some intents for some of
the devices that we have on Earth uh
just like the regular Echo devices like
stop and next things that are just more
common just make sure that those happen
really fast but this is something that I
think we're going to want to build out
especially with people that are in areas
that are remote without a lot of
connectivity this is a nice way to be
able to do this what we did have to do
is we we did uh populate a lot of things
that we thought would be relevant for
the mission ahead of time since it's not
going to the cloud
okay so let's see I'm looking at our
crew timeline here we just did the
vehicle speed so the next thing uh we're
gonna do is to test how video
conferencing will work through the
deep space network
uh so the team at Cisco has created this
uh bespoke version of WebEx to take high
quality video which let's let's say it's
like 10 lanes of data and they're
compressing it down into like a bike
lane to be able to get it through the
deep space Network to try to have it
come on the other side to look high high
fidelity so we're going to do that now
so there is a desk Pro right here and at
the very top of it so right here there
is a camera on top and we're going to
activate that camera and show it on the
tablet
no way so I know so you can actually
okay
I'm up when you're ready
the call Orion button is right there and
and you can press that when you're ready
and that'll start your debut in space
you guys ready you're all going to be in
frame so good get ready whenever you're
ready okay okay
calling Orion yes and then you can
look right up here on the tablet oh wow
oh wow amazing things it takes a little
while to establish the connection
oh I can see us over there
and it should happen
how did they take the call
[Laughter]
there you are
you are in space
so you can notice there's a little bit
of a delay
um
so here I'm going to take this
opportunity you guys want a selfie right
oh yeah so what I'll do is I'll do you
turn around really quick okay and I can
get you in there
and let me take another one of just the
three of you
okay awesome
we're in space guys
that's why I tried to do it I tried to
do it fast so I didn't have you guys uh
face in the wrong way
all right so as you can imagine it's
it's difficult to be able to send audio
and video data hundreds of thousands of
miles away but this is what the the
bespoke version of WebEx that um that
Cisco created was enabled for this so
it's pretty amazing imagine you have
somebody
on board we're here at Mission Control
you can be able to have that
conversation or talk to loved ones when
you're in space so very cool
all right so now we'll keep that up as
we do our rest of our tests so we can
keep you in space uh so after the video
call test we have some feature tests
um next one is the accessing offline
audio which we had a sneak peek of
already so millions of people on our
actually one of the most popular
requests that Alexa gets on Earth is to
play music I imagine that you guys
listen to music throughout the day of
course yeah if you had to pick a genre
of music to bring with you on like a
month-long Mission what would you bring
I'll do contemporary Christian yeah nice
rock music rock
probably want to do something Jazz since
I'm from New Orleans yeah yeah so the
representative yeah I like that uh so
for Callisto we pre-loaded a few songs
on board that uh we thought were
appropriate for the mission
um and we're going to use Alexa to be
able to bring up
one of those songs spoiler
uh Jacob do you wanna sure try this one
out
Alexa play the space rap
okay
can you try that one more time Alexa
play the space rap
Alexa play the space rap
so the the light on the left hand side
that goes on that's letting us know that
your voice is coming out of the speaker
on the left okay so it's like a visual
indication that it's happening
unfortunately what we're looking for is
a ring to show up on the right hand
speaker because that's Alexa listening
maybe uh so I don't know what can you
actually give it a try okay you do do
you mind
sure Alexa play the space rap okay
Alexa play the space rap
okay
I'm gonna have you try a different one
Alexa play music okay
Alexa
play music
Here's a song I think you might like
and I think that's the rap
[Alexa Space Rap playing]
you can also play this at home yeah
from the cloud not from Orion
[Music]
still wrapping my head around you guys
are being like that's happening in
space right now
it's like a lot to take in to imagine
Orion floating through space that song
playing with your face inside like the
camera you kind of forget like I don't
know it's it's pretty crazy yeah
um
uh so moving on we have uh let's see
control connected devices so Alexa is uh
millions of people rely on Alexa to be
able to control their smart home uh it's
a very popular request do you guys have
any smart home devices in your house my
lights is a big one it's the big one
well you're in luck because uh as part
of the our payload we also have some
lights that we can control inside the
cabin
you guys wanna you guys want to do that
definitely all right Chris I'll start
with you this is ready
Alexa set the light to Green
okay
that is too cool
wait I need to take a picture yeah yeah
yeah yeah
you're all gonna you're all gonna get to
be able to do it too so
Alexa throw a party
all right okay do you wanna
try one as well oh yes well yeah I'll do
purple
uh sadly we have a set number of Colors
oh so the lights can only just handle
like certain amount of colors sorry
okay
Alexa
set the light to Blue
I am unable to access temperature control on this Mission but this
technology could be used in the future
to make astronauts lives easier and more
enjoyable while in space
give that same one a try or actually try
a magenta if that's closer to purple for
you oh okay
Alexa
set the light to Blue
okay there we go
all right Jacob all right all right
that's cold oh yes
Alexa turn on party mode
no I think we're gonna have to try that
one more time okay
if you could you talk a little bit
lighter I I it's I had the same problem
with mine I think I have a little lower
registered voice it was getting clipped
on that so I tried a little bit lighter
Alexa turn on party mode
I love it that's really good now imagine
that out in space and you're just seeing
all these things
with the rap music right
I think you guys just set like the
furthest smart home command ever so
congratulations that's very cool
um so what we're doing here is we're
testing to see how voice interactions
could help future astronauts and have
them uh help their workflow
and have some of the conveniences that
we have here on Earth uh up in space
we're imagining that uh it might help
them with multitasking so imagine you
have your hands and gloves you're
working on something like an experiment
and you want information from the
vehicle you want to be able to take
notes instead of taking your hands out
you know of your primary task and doing
the secondary one you can just
accomplish it and just be more effective
so that's what we're trying to test here
today
all right so uh do you think that your
students would want to go to space Oh
yeah yeah
maybe maybe maybe I think after this
experience yes
uh so what we're gonna do next is we're
gonna move over to the Whiteboard and
we're going to test how future crew
members could interact with their
co-workers uh while on a mission so you
want to follow me over there sure all
right
all right
why don't you guys come over here
I will bring this up
all right so I was told that we have a
little bit of time uh before we have our
connection uh Sean how much time do we
have
okay you notice that the audio and the
video were out of sync uh in the morning
we go through a bunch of tests to make
sure that it's all synced up and for
whatever reason it was knocked out of
sync so
I want to be able to give you guys the
best experience as we can today thank
you thank you
yeah
a long time ago I came to Johnson Space
Center yeah and we were looking through
this window and looking at the very
first you know mission control room and
this looks completely like night and day just
because of Technology right right you
know I think that's the one that Jeannie
mentioned as we were walking through the
hallway was right behind on the other
side of that wall yeah wow yeah no it's
a lot of history in these Halls
definitely amazing
will it show up
okay all right you've had some time to
think about what message you want to
send to your students so I have
a pen here let me just make sure it's at a
nice
thickness and then you can choose any
color you want just just blue for you
but you can
I did
look up on the screen
wow
didn't want to interrupt but I want you
to see it too
that's awesome
so that message is in space right now
that's awesome your students you wanna
you wanna take a picture yeah do you
have your camera
here I'll use my I'll just send these
out to you
okay let me give you one with the board
right here
then you gotta get one point to the
Callisto yeah yeah
all right
all right that's great
okay you ready
what message would you send to your
students
there's like imagines you're in the
vehicle you know you're writing on the
iPad and it's showing out to people on
earth or vice versa
there it is
yeah you get your picture really quick
in here too
awesome
all right
you ready definitely
what was that
all right when you're ready okay so in
honor of my robotics team this is their
team motto okay
I love it you can see the end of it
being written up there yes that's so
cool
all right let me get a picture
awesome thanks awesome all right so now
that you have a little bit more
familiarity with the board here we're
going to give you an actual assignment
to do
so imagine that you are
um
let's say you're students are on board
Orion and if they snap this picture of
the lunar surface you're here in mission
control and your job is to tell them
so they're going to land here
shows up on Orion I'm just doing it here
on Earth
all right
so they're gonna land here
but we need them to go find some lunar
samples
up here
so you have to draw the route that you
that you want them to take through the
lunar surface from here up there
your choice your choice
I'll take the easiest route
hopefully
let's have some fun right here nice
right there perfect
all right Jacob
no we need multiple paths for
contingencies so if you want to find an
alternate path from The Landing site to
the sample site all right we're going to
take the scenic route I like it go this
way
oh
so what are those uh holes are they
those are those are craters on the
lunar surface so you want us to avoid
the craters you can do whatever you want
to go for it do it you can do whatever
you want in there they avoided
you're up so our our third and last
alternate path how would you like your
students to Traverse the lunar surface
hit every crater
I mean it hasn't been done yet
oh well
all right I think I'll just go
this way
oh
nice
you guys are so kind to your students
she got a couple of them but as you can
imagine you can this is like a
a powerful tool to be able to use to
collaborate with schematics and messages
or or even just have fun like we did
earlier
great all right well thank you so much
we're gonna move back over to our our
desk over here
we're starting to wrap up our day
yeah
uh being on a uh like a long duration
Mission it's helpful to have a sense of
humor keep your spirits up uh and Alexa
has a lot of Personality that we can uh
test out today uh so Jacob I'll start
with you okay uh why don't you have uh
Alexa tell us a joke
Alexa tell a science joke
there's a fine line between the
numerator and the denominator
this is pretty good
okay all right yep yep okay that one's
for you here let me let me move this
video
Alexa
what should my students know about space
would like to know that Orion will
travel farther into space than any
spacecraft built for humans has ever
flown the lessons from these missions
will be used to ensure the safety of
future moon landings and eventually
visiting the planet Mars This Mission
will inform space exploration and travel
for the Next Generation
awesome you get something there for your
students right very good the Next
Generation that is sitting in our
classroom right now yes absolutely yes
that's a lot to think about I think
there was a fifth graders would be the
ones that'll be on Mars oh
yeah
oh wow yeah right that's crazy it's a
lot to think about yeah uh Chris you
want to do an educational one down there
sure
Alexa what is local voice control
my integration aboard Orion utilizes local Voice Control an emerging
technology from Amazon that allows me to
function areas with limited to no
connectivity due to the distance and
limited bandwidth required for data
between space to Earth local voice
control is helpful for low earth orbit
and is critical for deep space
applications
paraphrasing what I said so I'm glad I
was right
so we have uh that wraps up our days
that you see on our timeline while we've
done everything which is great we just
have one last command okay would you
like to send it
Alexa go to sleep mode
starting sleep sequence wow
the lights plays a nice little relaxing
sound so you've drawn out the fans and
the pumps that happens while you're
going to sleep on a ride
thank you guys so much for helping us
test this out um I had a blast I hope
you guys did as well for sure uh so we
have a couple more things that I'd like
to do uh before we go I'd like to get
you guys to sign our mission log in
space of course so let's head over there
in space of course yeah of course
I'll have you each
do it individually here
just you can pick whatever color you'd
like
name and date we did printer sign of
whatever you'd like
what day is it today
yeah
what's the date is it first or second
second okay
great and if you look up there
virtual crew member picture certificate
did you want to go by the board oh yeah
I'll take the pen from you
all right okay thank you
let me just clear it out for you
let me tell Alexa turn on the lights
okay
can we turn off the illuminator
the camera illuminate
got it
all right okay
okay you want another one over here yes
I'll take your pen
awesome there you go thank you
all right Chris
clear it out for you
didn't expect that
I know
they really worked very hard to like you
know put all this together yeah
it's like a full experience yeah
well I like that thanks
yeah all right yep all right all right
let me take your picture here
I'll take the pen you can do whenever on
the board
turn off the light for you
awesome cool
all right well that concludes our time
in here thank you so much uh so we've
had the support team in here helping us
out but as we were talking there's a
whole room of engineers in here so do
you always want to go peek in yeah
say hi thank you so much thank you
thank you so much
amazing experience thank you we're just
gonna peek in here and say thanks