SpaceX sends AI robot "crew member" to join space station astronauts

On Friday morning, SpaceX will launch its 15th cargo mission to the International Space Station for NASA, sending nearly 6,000 pounds of fuel to its Falcon 9 rocket. On board the vehicle, there are food and food shipments. Water for the six astronauts living on the ISS, as well as new experiments and scientific technologies to be tested in microgravity. And in this feature, the very first robot "AI" to live on the station.

The name of the robot is CIMON – for Crew Interactive Mobile Companion – and it looks a bit like a volleyball with a computer screen from one side. . The screen displays a simplified cartoon face that the bot will use to interact with humans on the ISS. And to maneuver, CIMON is equipped with 14 internal fans that propel the white ball, sucking the air from the station and expelling it to move in the direction it needs. This means that CIMON can "float" throughout the station, zooming in on astronauts who call her name and nodding in response to questions.

The German space agency aims to see if smart robots can cooperate with astronauts to simplify life professional in the space. CIMON has already been tested on a parabolic flight – an airplane that steals a special trajectory to create brief moments of weightlessness. And CIMON has been trained a few times on Earth with German astronaut Alexander Gerst, who is already on board the ISS. Thus, the microphones and cameras of the robot are specially tuned to recognize his voice and his face. However, the creators of CIMON say that IBM's voice-controlled AI capabilities, provided by IBM, allow the companion to interact with any astronaut who calls him.

Image: DLR

Once on the station, Gerst will host CIMON and will use the bot to help him with some scientific experiments. For example, CIMON can make Gerst walk through a complex procedure with the help of images and videos that he can display on his screen. Gerst can also ask CIMON questions about the experiments he will be working on. CIMON is intended to simply test this AI companion technology, so that the bot will interact with Gerst and the other crew members for a total of three hours on the station. But what he learns could help inform the design of similar AI robots in the future.

With CIMON, SpaceX also sends an instrument that will be attached to the outside of the ISS to measure plant temperatures on Earth. These measurements can indicate to scientists how much the ecosystems of our planet are stressed and whether the plants of the world receive enough water. In addition, SpaceX will carry an additional locking mechanism that can be attached to the end of Canada's robotic arm outside the space station. The arm, which is a long snake robot, has had two of these mechanisms at each end for the last 17 years. But the Canadian Space Agency has noticed some wear and tear mechanisms over time, and one of the locks failed in the fall of 2017. Canada has replaced the mechanisms with spare parts, but the country sends another one in case "

SpaceX uses a used Falcon 9 rocket for this mission, as well as a Dragon cargo capsule used to carry all supplies to the ISS. This is the third time that the company has piloted both a refurbished Dragon and Falcon 9 for NASA. The Dragon has already flown to the space station in July 2016, while the Falcon 9 flew in April of this year, when he launched a new fighter satellite on the planet for NASA called TESS. The rocket landed on one of SpaceX's drones after takeoff, and the company was able to get the vehicle back into readiness in two and a half months. This is the shortest running time for a Falcon 9 rocket. "Our teams have become extremely efficient during the renovation process," said Jessica Jensen, Dragon Mission Management Director at SpaceX, during A press conference before the mission

Image: NASA

However, SpaceX will not attempt to land this Falcon 9 after take-off. This mission will be the last launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 4, on an old version of the rocket that the company is eliminating. After this flight, all future SpaceX Falcon 9 launches will be on Block 5 – the final and most powerful upgrade to the rocket that makes it even easier to land and reuse. Block 5 is also the rocket that SpaceX will use to launch NASA astronauts aboard the ISS as part of the agency's Commercial Crew program

The SpaceX Falcon 9 will take off from the base from Cape Canaveral Florida at 5:42 am ET on Friday, and the Dragon is at rendezvous with the space station three days later on Monday around 7 am. The company does, however, have an instant launch window, so if it does not take off in time, it will have to start another day. A backup launch date is Sunday, July 1st at 4:54 am. However, the weather is good for a Friday launch, with a 90% chance of favorable conditions.

NASA coverage of the launch will begin on NASA TV at 5:15 AM ET, while the SpaceX coverage will begin approximately 20 minutes before takeoff.