CIMON the 'flying brain' is heading to the space station

SpaceX's Friday-morning mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will include a new crew member quite unlike any other. The name of the new addition is CIMON (pronounced Simon) and it's being sent to act as a mobile autonomous assistance system. Think HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Moon's GERTY, and Holly in the BBC's Red Dwarf. Developed by Airbus and Germany's DLR space agency, and powered by IBM's Watson supercomputer, CIMON will be the first form of artificial intelligence (A.I.) to arrive on the space station, where it will aid the astronauts with their research work and presumably become their buddy, as well. CIMON, which stands for Crew Interactive MObile companioN, is about the size of a volleyball and has a display built in. It can see, hear, talk, and comprehend, and its A.I. smarts mean that the more it interacts with crew members, the more abilities it will develop.