HAL 9000, the chatty computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, has come a step closer to reality. A team crewing NASA鈥檚 Mars Desert Research Station, a simulated planetary environment in the Utah desert, has been experimenting this week with software that can talk to the crew about the status of their spacecraft鈥檚 systems.
Using wireless headsets, crew members ask the computer questions such as 鈥淚s the generator providing power to the batteries?鈥� The computer then interrogates sensors embedded in the spacecraft systems, and provides the answer in spoken form. In this week鈥檚 trials, the software dealt with simulations of a malfunctioning power system.
Until now astronauts doing running repairs have been guided through the job by support crews on the ground.
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