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A ball-shaped artificial intelligence robot dubbed the "flying brain" because it is trained to track and interact with a German astronaut, took off on Friday to the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship. The Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 5:42 am (3:12 pm EST). "The Falcon 9 rocket feeds the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station," said a NASA commentator as the white rocket started its engines and lit up the skies in a dark Florida morning
. The unmanned Dragon capsule transported 5,900 pounds (2,700 kilograms) during its 15th supply mission to the orbiting laboratory, under a $ 1.6 billion contract with NASA.
The capsule and the rocket flew before. The Dragon sent cargo in space in 2016 and the Falcon decimated a NASA satellite two months ago.
The California aerospace company, led by Elon Musk, intends to reuse rockets and spacecraft to save money and reduce costs. About 10 minutes after the start of the flight, SpaceX confirmed that the Dragon had successfully deployed since the second stage of the rocket and that it was on a "good orbit".
It should arrive at the station on July 2nd. [19659002] Experience with AI & # 39; historic & # 39;
A key element of the cargo is a waist-sized aircraft called a CIMON basketball – short of Crew Interactive MObile Companion.
He has been described as a "flying brain" by Manfred Jaumann, a microgravity payload head at Airbus.
Photo credit: Airbus
The activation of CIMON will mark "a historic moment" becoming the first robot of its kind to interact with people in the space, said Christian Karrasch, CIMON project manager at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), at a NASA press conference on Thursday.
CIMON was trained to recognize the voice and face of Alexander Gerst, 42, a geophysicist from the European Space Agency. 19659002] When Gerst calls CIMON, the floating robot acoustically perceives the place where Gerst calls, steers this way and zooms out.
Hovering at the eye level of the 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 fly and avoid clashing with things inside the Columbus space lab module.
He understands Alexander, "said Bret Greenstein, World Vice President of Watson's Internet of Things Offerings at IBM
" He will come to him when he speaks. "
The six crew members at the outpost in orbit can speak to CIMON, although he has been taught to work best with Gerst
Tech demo
The purpose of this flight is primarily to demonstrate the work of technology.
The robot should be able to guide Gerst through various scientific procedures, showing videos or photos as needed.
Gerst can also ask questions to the robot beyond the simple procedure in progress.
CIMON is equipped with a microphone on the back, an infrared camera on the front batteries, and perhaps the most important, a button " offline. "
Once" offline ", Gerst can be sure that nothing he says is transmitted to the IBM server on Earth.
Once back, the recordings vocals are activated again.
Other experiments aboard the Dragon include a new robo hand tized, or end 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.
to measure plant growth, called ECOSTRESS, and an experiment to learn how cells lining the blood vessels grow in space to inform a new cancer treatment.
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