Amazon’s Alexa Has An Astronaut Version—‘Callisto’—Who’ll Join NASA On The Moon

As NASA launches its Artemis 1 into orbit, a familiar stowaway has been found on the spaceship: Amazon’s Alexa.

The voice-activated system is being implemented into the spacecraft to provide answers to astronauts through their journey to the Moon.

However, this cosmic version of the Alexa has been updated for space use and is now called ‘Callisto’. The new model was developed by Lockheed Martin, Cisco, and, of course, Amazon.

Instead of setting timers and repeating weather forecasts, Callisto—who in Greek mythology was a follower of Artemis—was installed to attend to the astronauts’ needs and to provide data back to the ground staff as well.

During its inception, Lockheed Martin and Amazon had to ensure that Callisto was able to withstand intense vibrations as it rocketed among the stars. To do so, the device is kept in a protective case measuring 1.5 feet by one foot in height and width, and about five inches deep.

Callisto is able to tap into NASA’s Deep Space Network to connect to its mission controllers instead of depending on Wi-Fi like other earthbound Alexas. Voice commands are also processed locally via a Local Voice Control system instead of information being sent to the cloud.

Lockheed Martin states that this new venture is an expedition into testing out how commercial technology can also support deep missions into our galaxy.

[via Space.com and MediaPost, cover image via Lockheed Martin]