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A ball-shaped artificial intelligence robot nicknamed the "flying brain" because it is trained to track and interact with a German astronaut, took off Friday to the International Space Station aboard the freighter SpaceX Dragon. A new spare part for the robotic arm of the station, an experiment to measure plant stress in the space and a study of a new cancer treatment were also performed at 5 h 42 (0942 ). "The Falcon 9 rocket is feeding the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station," said a NASA commentator as the white rocket started its engines and lit up the sky in a bleak morning in Florida. . The unmanned Dragon capsule transported 5,900 pounds (2,700 kilograms) on its 15th supply mission to the orbiting laboratory, under a $ 1.6 billion contract with NASA.
The capsule and the rocket have already flown. The Dragon sent goods into space in 2016 and the Falcon decimated a NASA satellite two months ago. The California-based aerospace company run by Elon Musk intends to reuse rocket parts and spacecraft to save money and reduce the cost of spaceflight. About 10 minutes after the start of the flight, SpaceX confirmed that the Dragon had been successfully deployed from the second stage of the rocket and was in a "good orbit". He should arrive at the station on July 2nd.
– Experience in AI & # 39; historic & # 39; –
A key piece of cargo is a device the size of a basketball called CIMON – shortcut Crew Interactive MObile Companion. He has been described as a "flying brain" by Manfred Jaumann, responsible for microgravity payloads at Airbus. Christian Karrasch, head of the CIMON project at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), at a press conference organized by NASA on Thursday, said the activation of CIMON will mark "a historic moment," Christian said. Karrasch, CIMON Project Manager. CIMON was trained to recognize the voice and face of Alexander Gerst, 42, a geophysicist with the European Space Agency. When Gerst calls CIMON, the floating robot acoustically perceives the place where Gerst calls, so directs and zooms out. By hovering at eye level astronauts, his front camera can detect if the person in front of him is Gerst, or someone else. It is also designed to interpret his emotional state.
CIMON will be powered by more than a dozen propellers to help it go around and avoid clashing with things inside the Columbus space lab module . "It's designed to work in English and includes Alexander," said Bret Greenstein, global vice president of Watson's Internet of Things Offerings at IBM. "He will come to him when he speaks." The six crew members of the outpost in orbit can speak to CIMON, although he has learned to work best with Gerst
– Tech demo –
The purpose of this flight is mainly to demonstrate the technology work. The robot should be able to guide Gerst through various scientific procedures, showing videos or images as needed. Gerst can also ask questions to the robot beyond the simple procedure in hand.
CIMON is equipped with a microphone at the back, an infrared camera at the front, two batteries and perhaps an "offline" button. Once switched to "offline", Gerst can be sure that nothing that it says is transmitted to the IBM server on Earth. Once back, the voice recordings are activated again.
Other experiments aboard the Dragon include a new robotic hand, or terminal effector, for the Canadian robotic arm of the space station. It will serve as a reserve at the station.
Astronauts repaired the arm handrail – which was becoming arthritic after 17 years of use – during a series of outings in space in recent months. Among the contents of the cargo are also a project of measuring the growth of plants, called ECOSTRESS, and an experiment to learn how the cells lining the blood vessels grow in the space in order to inform a new treatment against cancer
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