From idea to orbit: Terra Mater Studios builds Hera AI companion with Azure data, AI
In the expanse of space, a new kind of intelligence is emerging—and a new model for human-AI collaboration. It started with a bold idea from a creative visionary. “What if we could speak with a spacecraft like it was a friend?” says Markus Mooslechner, Concept and Creative Lead at Terra Mater Studios, a nature film and documentary production company and subsidiary of Red Bull. “Not through cold commands or scripted chat, but through meaningful, evolving conversation.”
A longtime science communicator and creator of documentaries, Mooslechner wanted people on Earth to have a personal connection with space. In 2023, his vision found a home in the Hera spacecraft mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). It was set to embark for the Didymos binary asteroid system the following year to gather data for a planetary asteroid defense initiative. “It was ideal—an exploratory mission that people could speak to,” says Mooslechner.
Ian Carnelli, Hera Mission Manager at ESA, loved the idea, but knew building a secure, natural conversational AI for a spacecraft traveling 6.1 kilometers per second to a destination 195 million miles away wouldn’t be easy. “Nothing like this has ever been done. It’s like science fiction, but we knew Microsoft AI technology could make it real,” says Carnelli.
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