NASA is taking Cisco Webex to space

Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco have introduced a brand new collaboration that can see Cisco Webex and Amazon's Alexa built-in into NASA's Orion spacecraft.This modern payload, dubbed Callisto, will fly on board the Orion spacecraft which was constructed by Lockheed Martin for the US space company's Artemis 1 uncrewed mission across the Moon. Callisto will use Alexa and Webex to take a look at and reveal how industrial expertise can be utilized for deep space voice, video and whiteboarding communications.

According to Lisa Callahan, VP and common supervisor of Lockheed Martin's Commercial Civil Space division, Callisto will present how these applied sciences can allow astronauts to be more self-reliant as they discover deep space.Named after a favourite companion of the Greek goddess Artemis, Callisto includes a customized {hardware} and software program integration developed by engineers in any respect three firms that can permit Alexa to work with out an web connection and Webex to run on a pill utilizing NASA's Deep Space Network.

Virtual crew expertise

As Artemis 1 is an uncrewed mission, Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco have additionally constructed a digital crew expertise at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas that can permit operators to work together with Callisto from the Mission Control Center.Through these distant interactions, Callisto companions and NASA will likely be in a position to take a look at and reveal how voice and video collaboration applied sciences might help astronauts enhance effectivity and situational consciousness throughout their mission by enabling them to entry flight standing and telemetry knowledge with the flexibility to management related gadgets onboard Orion.At the identical time, video and audio of those interactions will likely be transmitted again to Earth all through the length of the Artemis 1 mission in order that engineers can analyze the efficiency of onboard methods whereas additionally sharing interactions with the general public. In truth, college students, households and space fans will likely be in a position to have interaction with and just about “ride along” with the mission on Alexa-enabled gadgets by saying “Alexa, take me to the Moon” whereas Webex video collaboration capabilities will present alternatives for STEM training and distant classroom educating occasions.Artemis 1 is scheduled to launch at first of this yr from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida for a multi-week journey across the Moon and again. We'll doubtless hear more from Cisco and Amazon relating to how their applied sciences are being utilized in space as soon as the mission begins.We've additionally featured the finest video conferencing software program and finest online collaboration instruments