Microsoft's AI offers the unique opportunity to talk to the Hera deep space probe

Hera is a deep space probe launched last year to study and monitor the Dimorphos and Didymos asteroids which are potentially dangerous for Earth. Right now, the explorer is around Mars and sent beautiful images back home.

Recently, Microsoft announced Hera Space Companion on X, a website that includes all the data from the probe, but also offers a chat service powered by Azure OpenAI. The Hera Companion is basically a way to chat with Hera and ask her about its mission. Of course, you can also ask it the obvious question about aliens, right? Well, we’re way ahead, although we knew the answer: I haven’t encountered any aliens during my journey so far!

After a long pause and without me asking anything, Hera updated me with the actual useful information about its status and mission:

Hey, are you still here? 😊 I’m thrilled to share the latest—I’m approaching Mars on March 12, 2025! During the flyby, I’ll use Mars’s gravity to fine-tune my trajectory toward the Didymos system. It’s an exciting maneuver that optimizes my journey and helps save energy for the mission ahead. Would you like to hear more about how this gravity assist works or what I might discover along the way?

So, here how this works. All the data from Hera’s position and mission are introduced in a database that Azure OpenAI uses to respond to your natural language question in an equally natural way.

Hera Companion even has its own Instagram page, but it’s a lot more exciting to talk to Hera directly on the dedicated Companion page.

Whether you’re a space exploration fan, or just curious, the new feature powered by Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI is pretty exciting. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments below.