The story of running the legendary shooter Doom by American studio id Software on board a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite has taken an unexpected turn. While in 2023, a team of programmers led by Icelandic developer Ólafur Waage confined themselves to running the game on the OPS-SAT satellite and producing a text report—since the device lacks a screen—this summer the experiment reached a new level: Doom was launched via a voice command transmitted from Earth. Estonian company Tanagra Space reported on the successful project dubbed PRETTY DOOMed.

From text report to voice command

The OPS-SAT satellite, also known by the acronym PRETTY (Passive REflecTomeTry and dosimetrY), was not originally designed for speech recognition. The corresponding software was uploaded on board specifically for the experiment. According to representatives of Tanagra Space, the test became the first successful case where an ESA device could recognize and execute a voice command. Doom was chosen for the "execution" because of the game's portability and predetermined aspects.

How the command sounded and what the satellite "heard"

Radio enthusiasts from the LA4O club of the Norwegian Radio Relay League transmitted the command to launch Doom on their seventh attempt on July 27. The sixth attempt was also successful, but it used a synthesized voice rather than a live one. The original phrase sounded like: "LIMA ALFA FOUR OSCAR, PRETTY PLAY DOOM DOOM DOOM, PRETTY PLAY DOOM DOOM DOOM." The onboard system decoded it slightly differently: "AND FAR BRIEFLY PLAYING DOOM STEAM DOOM PRECIPATED." Nevertheless, the mere mention of Doom was enough for the device to understand the task: a 27 MB speech model decoded the signal, the algorithm confirmed the command, and the satellite sent a "postcard" to Earth with details of the launch.

Technical transmission details

The signal was broadcast in a narrowband frequency-modulated mode at 1296 MHz with an output power of about 80 W. An Icom IC-9700 transceiver and a Wimo helical antenna with a gain of 15.1 dBi were used for the transmission. Despite the satellite having no display, the launch result was captured and transmitted as a text report, continuing the tradition of previous Doom-in-space experiments.

Significance of the experiment

The PRETTY DOOMed project demonstrates that even a specialized scientific device not intended for speech processing is capable of executing voice commands after the corresponding software is uploaded. For enthusiasts and researchers, this confirms the possibility of flexible onboard system upgrades and opens up additional interaction scenarios with spacecraft. Just as in 2023, the result was a text report rather than a visual one—but now with a key difference: the command was given by a human, not a script.