Skip to main content

CIMON the flying brain is back on Earth after 14 months in space

A robotic assistant recently returned to Earth after spending just over a year on the International Space Station (ISS).

CIMON (pronounced “Simon” and short for Crew Interactive Mobile companiON) returned with other cargo aboard SpaceX’s CRS-18 spacecraft last week.

Related Videos

For those not in the know, CIMON was developed by Airbus and IBM in collaboration with Germany’s DLR space agency. The robot is essentially an advanced floating computer and features a simply drawn face on the monitor to encourage more realistic communication. Described by a member of the Airbus team as “a kind of flying brain,” the A.I.-powered device is designed to interact with astronauts while behaving like a regular member of the crew.

“CIMON makes work easier for the astronauts when carrying out everyday routine tasks,” Airbus said of the robot, adding that it can “increase efficiency, facilitate mission success, and improve security, as it can also serve as an early warning system for technical problems.”

Mission success

The robot’s recent deployment was notable for being the first form of A.I. to spend time on the ISS, and by all accounts seems to have been a success.

“CIMON is a technology demonstration that has completely met our expectation,” Christian Karrasch, CIMON Project Manager at the German Aerospace Center, said in a release.

Karrasch added that the robot assistant demonstrated during testing that it’s able to interact with astronauts and recognize their faces, as well as find its own way through the sprawling space station using 12 internal fans for flight in the microgravity conditions.

“With CIMON, we were able to lay the foundations for human assistance systems in space to support astronauts in their tasks and perhaps, in the future, to take over some of their work,” the project manager said.

CIMON Mark II

The mission went so well that the team is already developing a more advanced version with better flight control and improvements to CIMON’s A.I. smarts.

The plan is to deliver the upgraded CIMON to the ISS in December 2019 for further testing with astronauts.

It’s worth pointing out that that CIMON wasn’t the first robot to visit the space station. In its 20-year history, the space lab has also hosted Japan’s Kirobo, a floating camera sphere called Int-Ball, and a humanoid robot named Robonaut.

Editors' Recommendations

NASA is looking for ideas on how to boost the Hubble Space Telescope
An astronaut aboard the space shuttle Atlantis captured this image of the Hubble Space Telescope on May 19, 2009.

The Hubble Space Telescope is now over 30 years old, first launched in 1990. The venerable telescope continues to produce valuable scientific data and beautiful images of space, but it won't last forever, as sooner or later its orbit will decay which would cause the telescope to break apart in Earth's atmosphere. But Hubble could keep operating for longer if its orbit were to be raised -- a complex but doable operation that NASA is now considering.

NASA is inviting private companies to submit their proposals for boosting the telescope, which would work as a demonstration of how to perform similar operations on satellites.

Read more
See NASA’s newest Earth-monitoring satellite unfurl in space
This illustration shows the SWOT spacecraft with its antenna mast and solar arrays fully deployed.

This month, NASA launched a new Earth-monitoring satellite that will observe fresh water systems across the planet. Now, the satellite has unfurled in space ready to begin science operations, and NASA has shared a video showing the unfolding process.

KaRIn Antennas Deploy on International SWOT Satellite

Read more
NASA could use SpaceX ship to rescue 3 crewmembers stuck on ISS
Russia's Soyuz spacecraft leaking coolant at the space station.

NASA is speaking to SpaceX about the possibility of using a Crew Dragon spacecraft to bring home three International Space Station (ISS) astronauts who currently have no ride back to Earth.

The Soyuz spacecraft that transported American Frank Rubio, and Russians Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, to the ISS in September suffered a serious leak a couple of weeks ago that saw coolant spraying out from the Russian capsule.

Read more