LITTLETON, Colo. — If you've ever wanted your words to go to space, you can make it happen thanks to a collaborative project that has Colorado ties.
Lockheed Martin teamed up with Amazon and Cisco to develop Callisto, which is being integrated into the Lockheed-built Orion spacecraft that will eventually take humankind back to the moon on the Artemis missions.
>Video above: How the Artemis mission came to be
The program will use Amazon's Alexa voice and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, along with Cisco's Webex program, to test and show video and whiteboard communications in deep space.
"Callisto will demonstrate a first-of-its-kind technology that could be used in the future to enable astronauts to be more self-reliant as they explore deep space," said Lisa Callahan, vice president and general manager of Commercial Civil Space for Lockheed Martin. "Callisto is a shining example of how new partnerships with commercial technologies can be flown on Orion to benefit future human deep space missions."
With Artemis I being an uncrewed mission, the three companies worked with NASA to create a virtual crew experience at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, which will allow operators to interact with Callisto from Mission Control.
Lockheed said video and audio interactions will be sent back to Earth multiple times throughout the Artemis I mission, which will "allow engineers to analyze the performance of the onboard systems, while also sharing interactions with the public."
How to submit your message to Callisto
People who want to get their personal message (way) out there, can submit it here.
Messages can also be submitted through the Explore Orion app. Lockheed Martin said messages will be reviewed, but once they're approved, they will be sent to Callisto over the Deep Space Network.
If your message is selected, it will be shown on the Callisto payload screen during the Artemis I mission.
Artemis I is scheduled to launch Monday. The mission's launch window is between 6:33 and 8:33 a.m. Mountain Time. Artemis' mission to travel around the moon and back is slated to last about 40 days.
In case you're wondering, Callisto is named after the Greek goddess Artemis' favorite companion. It's also the name of Jupiter's second-largest moon.
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