The world of spacecraft is often full of surprises, and some experiences, although important, can seem “uninteresting” if viewed only from a distance. This is the case of this iPad, the touch pad from Apple which will be sent into space aboard the Orion module during the very first flight of the SLS, NASA’s new rocket.
In a recent press release, the American space agency explains that it plans to take off an iPad to test a feature… from Amazon. If the world of new technologies laughs at this misunderstanding, NASA justifies its choice of the Apple tablet.
As she explains, the iPad should serve as the basis for the Callisto mission, a sub-part of the Artemis 1 flight. With this mission the objective is to prove that the Amazon voice assistant “Alexa” will be able to work in space, hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth.
Using an iPad to Operate Alexa
Because that is what NASA intends to do. Use Alexa remotely to make life easier for astronauts. As the space agency itself explains, the idea is to prove that it is possible to use a voice assistant to access various information such as trajectory, temperature, telemetry or even the time. merely.
The arrival of a voice assistant within a module like that of Orion could make life much easier for astronauts during their short stay in the direction of the Moon in 2025. As a reminder, the American agency hopes still be able to send a man and a woman to the surface of our satellite in less than 4 years.
©NASA
In order to achieve such a feat, it relies on technologies already accessible to the general public such as Alexa or the iPad. However, things will be different for the astronauts present on the edge of the module. Due to their distance from Earth, it will be impossible for Alexa to communicate with Amazon’s servers on Earth.
The voice assistant of the brand of Jeff Bezos will therefore have to draw the answers to the questions of the astronauts in a database which will be transported within the module itself. According to NASA, this should even allow for a faster response time than what we know on Earth.
A first mission for history
This first empty test should therefore be carried out on August 29, the planned take-off date for the Aretemis 1 mission. be sure that the latter is reliable and can send men around the Moon on its next mission.
With Artemis 3 it is expected that two people will land on the ground of our satellite, but the NASA program does not stop there. In collaboration with other space agencies such as the ESA, the American agency plans to make the Moon a new research base for astronauts, just like the ISS today.
