On this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, we’re going to space! I’m thrilled have Jono Luk, VP of Product Management for Webex as my guest and we’re going to talk about space exploration and how collaboration and voice technology are starting to play an increasingly important role in space exploration.

First, some background. Orion is the most advanced spacecraft ever developed to carry astronauts to the moon. What’s exciting is that voice activation and collaboration technology can take it to the next level by enabling interactive computer systems to become ready for the next gen of explorers. Orion’s uncrewed Artemis 1 mission is a tech demonstration developed through Lockheed Martin’s reimbursable space act agreement with NASA, and Lockheed Martin has partnered with Cisco and Amazon to bring Webex video collaboration and Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant on board during Orion’s first flight test in deep space, called the Callisto project.

While Jono’s official focus at Webex is on leading Contact Center and the Admin, Security Data, and Shared Experiences Project Management teams at Webex, when he had the chance to be  a part of the Callisto project, he jumped at it, and who wouldn’t? I would say that it’s not a stretch at all that a project focused on how commercial tech can be a part of the future of deep space exploration and assist future astronauts on deep space missions fits nicely under “shared experiences” category.

Our conversation today covered the following:

• The goal of the Callisto Tech Demo project, which is to demonstrate how astronauts and flight controllers can use human-machine interface tech to make their jobs simpler, safer, and more efficient, and also advance human exploration in deep space.
• Jono took us on a walk through how the tech works, connecting through NASA’s Deep Space Network, and a local database that’s located on board the spacecraft to communicate with Webex and Alexa.
• How the hardware was hardened to protect it for the radiation environment on Orion’s deep space journey.
• Jono shared some of the challenges the team working on this project had to overcome, as well as some things they learned along that way that were unexpected.
• Why Cisco is uniquely positioned to be the partner with Lockheed Martin and part of the Callisto Tech Demo project along with Amazon, and what this means for use cases beyond simply deep space.

This was incredibly exciting, and I’m thrilled to have been invited to be a part of Callisto Tech Demo and experience firsthand the realities of bringing video and voice collaboration tech — to deep space as well as to other remote places in the world, and the benefits that we can reap as a result.