A "flying brain" was launched to the International Space Station

A robot with artificial intelligence and ball shape, nicknamed "flying brain" and trained to interact with a German astronaut, took off Friday to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the ship Dragon SpaceX company.

At 05h42 Florida time (09h42 GMT), the Falcon 9 rocket takes off from Cape Canaveral for the fifteenth SpaceX refueling mission

The Dragon capsule, part of the Falcon 9 rocket, carries 2,700 kilos of material and makes part of the contract that SpaceX has signed with NASA for about $ 1,600 million.

The first phase of the launch went off smoothly until Dragon broke off the rocket, after about ten minutes, and deployed its solar panels. On Monday, July 2, he must reach the ISS, 400 km above sea level.

This is not the first trip of this rocket or cargo ship: in 2016 Dragon has was launched in space, and two months ago The same rocket was used to orbit a satellite NASA

– "A historical experience in AI" –

A key element of the material that Dragon carries is a basketball-sized device called CIMON (Acronym in English from Interactive Mobile Companion of the Crew).

Manfred Jaumann, director of Airbus, has dubbed it "flying brain".

The activation of CIMON will represent "a historic moment" "This will be the first robot of this type to interact with people in the space," said Christian Karrasch, project manager at the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

CIMON was trained to recognize the voice and face of Alexander Gerst, a geophysicist from the European Space Agency 42.

Floating at the eyes of astronauts, CIMON can detect with their camera frontal if the person before them is really Gerst or someone else. It was also designed to interpret the emotional state of Gerst.

He has more than ten thrusters that help him avoid stumbling by floating in the Columbus module of the Space Lab.

Although the six crew members can speak CIMON (which is designed to communicate in English), has been trained to work better with Gerst.

The main objective of this flight will be to demonstrate if this technology works, because the robot must be able to guide Gerst in several procedures, including showing him photos and videos if necessary.

Gerst may also ask him questions beyond the mere procedure in question.