CIMON-2 Says, “I Am Here to Help”
If you haven’t seen “2001: A Space Odyssey”, then CIMON-2 will make you marvel at our technological progress with supercomputers and AI.
However, if you have seen Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic – involving a certain rogue AI named HAL 9000 – then you might just be a little concerned with the robotic astronaut’s existence.
NASA spent $6 million last year to produce the basketball-sized, floating computer named CIMON – which stands for “Crew Interactive Mobile Companion” – and it gained infamy when it argued with German astronaut, Alexander Gerst, about his choice in music.
CIMON-2 improved upon the original model as it runs on open source operating system Ubuntu and maneuvers using fans.
The bot is expected to stay on the International Space Station (ISS) for three years; there, it will be providing support to the crew with tasks such as providing repair instructions, documenting experiments, and offering reference material upon voice-prompt.
CIMON-2 won’t be the only robot in space, as NASA’s LEMUR models will essentially become lunar pack mules to future astronauts.
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