The first of the Artemis missions, which will return humanity to the Moon after many years, finally started recently. The Orion Spacecraft, which was sent into space, then arrived at the satellite and even made a close flyby. In addition to these, the vehicle that will carry the astronauts has not neglected to bring us the eye-catching photographs captured with the cameras it has.
The purpose of the Artemis 1 mission is to test the SLS rocket and Orion for manned flights. However, other things are also being tested in the vehicle. One of them is a project called Callisto. Recently, we shared that an iPad was sent into space as part of this project, so you can send a message to Orion. Now it has been announced that Callisto has another very interesting feature.
Orion also has a ‘party mode’ that turns the capsule into a disco.
Any time you fly to the Moon, it's a celebration. Over the weekend, we put on a show for @NASA_Orion's purposeful passengers using our #Callisto tech demo! 🎉🥳@alexa99, party mode!
Bonus: Sound on to hear the ambience of Orion's interior as it travels in deep space. 🔊 pic.twitter.com/ZdEkZHuli8
— Lockheed Martin Space (@LMSpace) November 28, 2022
First, let’s talk about the goals of Callisto. Developed in partnership with Amazon, Lockhead Martin and Cisco, the project uses Amazon’s artificial intelligence-supported voice assistant Alexa. The goal is to see how a voice assistant like Alexa can make things easier for astronauts in the future, make travel more efficient, and understand the implications of integrating consumer technologies into spacecraft. At the same time, Cisco’s voice and video calling service from space is also being tested within the scope of the project.
Here’s a post by Lockead Martin today, showing that with Callisto, another pretty fun feature has been added to Orion. In the sharing made from inside the vehicle, which has a human-sized mannequin inside, it is seen that Orion has a ‘Party Mode’ that can be activated with Alexa. The mode, which is activated with a command given to Alexa, allows colored lights to illuminate the inside of the capsule and create a disco environment.
As we mentioned, it is planned to facilitate the journey of astronauts with systems such as Alexa and to add elements that we see in science fiction movies to flights. The shared video also reveals that astronauts, who will be thousands of kilometers away from the world, can even have the opportunity to have a ‘party’ in the spacecraft with a small command when they want to celebrate. Who knows, maybe NASA can make this mode even more fun by adding things like confetti and music to the vehicle as the missions approach.
The Artemis 1 mission continues to progress successfully. Orion broke a record recently, surpassing Apollo 13’s success in reaching 400,171 kilometers from Earth. Thus, Orion managed to become the furthest vehicle among spacecraft designed to transport humans. The Orion vehicle will return to our planet on December 11, if nothing goes wrong.
For other details about Callisto;
For photos from Orion;
For information about the Artemis 1 mission;
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