The story of the launch of the legendary shooter Doom from developers from the American studio id Software on board a satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) received an unexpected continuation.
Image Source: Kotaku
Recall that in 2023, a team of programmers led by Icelandic developer Olafur Waage launched Doom on board the OPS-SAT satellite. In the absence of a screen, I had to limit myself to a text report from the program.
As the portal noted Tom’s HardwareDoom launched last summer on an OPS-SAT satellite called PRETTY (which stands for Passive REflecTomeTry and dosimetrY), and now thanks to a voice command from Earth.
Image source: Tanagra Space
About a successful experiment called PRETTY DOOMed reported Estonian company Tanagra Space. The satellite was not designed for voice recognition until the software was loaded onto PRETTY.
The command to play Doom on the seventh attempt was given to PRETTY by radio amateurs from the LA4O club of the Norwegian Radio Relay League – this happened on July 27. The sixth attempt was also successful, but did not use a live voice, but a synthesized one.
Image sources: ESA and Tanagra Space
The command sounded like this: “LIMA ALFA FOUR OSCAR, PRETTY PLAY DOOM DOOM DOOM, PRETTY PLAY DOOM DOOM DOOM.” The satellite “heard” a little differently: “AND FAR BRIEFLY PLAYING DOOM STEAM DOOM PRECIPATED.”
The mere mention of Doom was enough for the companion to understand the task. The 27 MB onboard speech model deciphered the signal, the algorithm confirmed the command, and the device sent a “postcard” with launch details (see image below).
Image sources: ESA and Tanagra Space
The signal was broadcast in narrowband frequency modulated mode at a frequency of 1296 MHz with an output power of about 80 W. For transmission, an Icom IC-9700 transceiver and a Wimo helical antenna with a gain of 15.1 dBi were used.
As Tanagra Space emphasized, the experiment was the first successful case when the ESA satellite was able to recognize a voice command and execute it. Doom was chosen due to its “portability and predetermined aspect.”
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