Alexa's Space Upgrade

Sitting down with Justin Nikolaus, Senior UX Designer at Amazon, reminded me that there are times in life where you can get exactly what you ask for. In Justin’s case, that meant being able to bridge the gap between his passions for design and space exploration. Justin has been partnering with ex-Astronauts at Lockheed Martin, current-Astronauts at NASA, and the team over at Cisco to design a space-conscious Alexa experience for the upcoming Artemis I mission. Alexa will be embedded into the Orion Spacecraft and work alongside Cisco’s Webex platform. In a sense, Justin is taking the phrase “Alexa everywhere” to an entirely new level.

An out-of-this-world experience

Designing for space meant thinking about some problems and use cases that were completely novel to the team. While, the current Artemis I mission will be not have a crew onboard, that didn’t stop Justin and the team from considering the impact that the Alexa technology could have for Astronauts. He spent years interviewing and learning directly from Astronauts to discover what their experiences have been throughout their careers.

These are completely net new experiences that we can think about and design ... We have the advantage of staying still when we're on Earth, but in space there's this tendency to just float around. If you wanted to type something, once you tap the keyboard, you start moving away from it.

During his research Justin remembers an anecdote of an astronaut on the International Space Station that had to write notes on his leg because his note pad had literally drifted away while he was working and he needed to take down an important piece of information. Justin noted, “if Alexa was available, then you wouldn’t need to worry about taping down notepads or even bringing one with you.” Diving deep into the the daily life of an astronaut was critical to building the experience for the project. Justin interviewed multiple astronauts, flight controllers and directors at NASA to ensure what he was building was both relevant and accurate for future astronauts. Without this research Justin wouldn’t have realized some of the most powerful use cases for voice interactions in space.

Another major complication astronauts encounter in space is the lack of connectivity, which is usually ‘mission critical’ when it comes to getting information from Alexa. This project used local voice control technology, which allows Alexa to function in areas with limited-to-no connectivity. The team isn't keeping that technology a secret either. They are taking the learnings from that use case and plan to develop Alexa to work better in cars and other remote environments across the world.

Justin has drawn 500+ drawings for his children's lunches as a way to share his passion and keep his illustration skills sharp.

Experiencing Space from Earth

Due to the fact that this in an uncrewed mission, special guests will be invited to the Mission Control Center in Houston to interact with Alexa during the Artemis I mission. Apart from the Alexa integration onboard Orion, the team also needed to design an experience in Houston as the guests interact remotely with Alexa onboard the spacecraft. Creating that experience meant experimenting here on Earth and recreating the scenario by using the Amazon office spaces to mimic the spacecraft and mission control communication stream. As other teams worked on the flight hardware and vehicle, Justin and team tried to simulate that environment and brought in various team members to act as different users to iron out the remote interaction and test the voice experience.

You can also experience this at home! The team built an Alexa skill so that any Alexa-enabled device can get information about the Orion spacecraft.

Preparing for Launch...

While the exact launch date has yet to be revealed by NASA, you can already opt-in for updates by saying “Alexa, Take me to the Moon” to any Alexa-enabled device. Alexa devices with screens are ready to display the livestream of the launch when the time comes. Additionally, Alexa owners will be able to stream from home and experience the guests in Houston interacting with Orion. There will be more details on that as the launch gets closer.

In the meantime, Justin and the team are on their own mission here on Earth. They are traveling around to events like the Goddard Memorial Dinner and the Space Symposium to showcase Alexa's capabilities and innovations for the upcoming and future space adventures. Until then, let’s count the days before our AI friend Alexa takes us to the Moon!